I Did It!

When we first moved to Maryland, we knew that Aaron wouldn't be starting work right away.  So I started looking for work, knowing that we were coming from a college student budget.  Since we had both been working part-time in Utah while Aaron finished school, we didn't have enough saved up to hold us over for the whole time we would be waiting for his job to start in August.

I got lucky and found a job that would allow me to start working just a week after moving into our new apartment.  I knew it wasn't my dream job, and therefore wouldn't be a permanent situation, but it was a decent office job.

For the past little while, we've been talking about me quitting- and this week I did it!

I'm so excited to finally have my time back- I have so many things I want to do that I will be able to do now that I have time during the day!  My biggest plans include working out more, playing the guitar and piano more, and writing.  I have a few ideas for books and now I'll finally have time to work on them!  (Okay, I guess I probably HAD time already in the evenings.  But I would rather have time to spend with my husband in the evenings- he will always take priority over almost anything else.  What can I say, I love the guy!)  I can't say that I'll become a famous author, but I started dreaming of being a writer in sixth grade, and now I'll get to try it.  Other goals include writing on this blog more often (and that means doing more things worth writing about!), making more friends around here (the ladies my age from church often get together during the week for lunch and now I'll get to go!), getting around to the sewing projects I have had in mind (and my fabric box!) for months, possibly teaching piano lessons again, and keeping our apartment clean and organized.

Whew- I can already foresee my days filling up!

This is going to be a major life change for us and we're both excited about it.  I'll finish work in the last week of March!  New countdown in the sidebar!

The downsides:  Giving up the iPhone and the bonus income

The perks:  Everything else!

Facebook lost my countdowns

The application I was using on Facebook to keep track of my countdowns has shut down.  This makes me sad, because it was the only one on there I really liked.

So I decided to just put up countdowns on the blog sidebar instead.  Enjoy!

Family, Jullian Michaels, and counting down

It was so fun to have Doug and Cassie (and Archer) here for a few days last weekend!  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures the whole time they were here- LAME.  At least I'll see them again at Christmas time in Virginia.

And my little sister is getting married in June!  Crazy!  I'm so excited for her.  (And I'm happy for an excuse to visit the family again...)  Nat's super design-y so I'm sure her wedding will be amazing.

So among job searching and sleeping in, I've decided that I need to work on losing weight again.  I've gained a good amount of weight since Aaron and I got married and enough is enough.  So I've started using my Jillian Michaels DVD again and I'm working my way up to doing the whole DVD workout at once.  There are 7 circuts (plus a warm up and cool down at either end) and it really is a kick-butt workout.  I get sore whenever I do at least 3 circuts- that's a good thing right?  And Aaron's allowed to bring me with him to his weight lifting class so I'm going to start going with him to that twice a week as well, and do Jillian Michaels on the days I don't go to the gym.  We've already started eating better, but that doesn't seem to be doing anything on its own.  Ugh.  I would just LOVE to start looking and feeling good in my clothes again.

I put up a countdown to Aaron's graduation.  But now I'm regretting it a little because it seems too far away!  Can't I just get a time machine?  A delorian? Oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait it out the old fashioned way.

My countdowns:

House Season Premiere: 8 days

Glee Season Premiere: 9 days

The Office Season Premiere: 11 days

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- part 1: 68 days

Voyage of the Dawn Treader: 89 days

Christmas: 103 days

That's all for now!

Weekend

Well, I'm grateful for this long weekend.  Aaron and I decided to go to Toy Story 3 in 3D on Saturday night instead of watching fireworks.  I was glad we did when I saw how bad the traffic was later that night when we were taking a walk.  The movie was really good- a perfect ending to the series.

And yesterday and today have just been so relaxing.  Much needed.

But I have to say that I hate job searching.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I wish I could just stay at my current job until Aaron graduates and we leave Provo.  *sigh*

End of Summer Term: 38 days

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: 136 days

Voyage of the Dawn Treader: 157 days

Christmas: 172 days

All kinds of excitement!

Well, I just turned in my last research papers of my college career!  All I have left is a written ballet final at 4:00 this afternoon, and a 3 page essay take-home final due on Friday by 5:00pm.  I did my gymnastics final this morning, turned in my 12 pager on symbolism in LOTR and did a presentation on it, and turned in my 10 pager on Hitchcock and Poe.  What a day.  And you know, it's really too bad I don't know French, because learning these French ballet terms would have been a lot easier if I did.

So Aaron's birthday is on Sunday.  I'm struggling a bit to think of something to get him...  Unfortunately, this boy has expensive tastes!  The only things he can think of that he wants are a desktop computer, a new digital camera, ratchets, and an angel food cake.  Well, I already bought the ratchets, and the angel food cake pan is all ready to go, but I just don't know.  And my parents asked me for suggestions of something to get him, but I can't tell them anything because, well, I'm basically out of ideas!  I know he's satisfied with just getting the ratchets from me because he's easy to please when it comes to gifts, but I feel a little lame just getting him some tools.  No, it's not that I feel lame getting him tools, I just really want to make him happy.

So I have to get my countdown on here because everything is getting so close!

• End of classes: 1 1/2 hours
• Aaron's birthday: 6 days
• Mom and Dad get here: 9 days
• Graduation: 10 days
• 1 Year Anniversary: 34 days

 On another note, Aaron has been working at the BYU Telefund for...ever... and he got a new job doing IT stuff that he's going to start either later this week or on Monday!  I'm so excited for him! He'll be graduating next April, so it'll be good that he has a whole year of relevant work experience before he starts a real, big-boy job.  Yay!

I'm so excited to see my parents next week!  I feel like I haven't seen them in forever, even though it's only been since Thanksgiving.  Though, to be fair, I think this is about the longest I've gone without seeing them.  Crazy.  They're staying with us in our one-bedroom apartment, so it's going to be a little tight, but I'm okay with that because I'm so excited!  I just hope the weather is good while they're here!

Random Thoughts during the Final Weeks (of school)

Could these last few weeks of the semester possibly go any slower?  I mean, really.

Ok, so it's really not that bad, but I have almost no motivation left for homework.  I have an awesome schedule where I go to classes all day Mondays and Wednesdays (and one class on Fridays, and an evening class on Tuesdays), and I just work all day Tuesday, Thursday, and half of Friday.  It's great, because if I didn't have days where I don't really have classes, I think I'd go crazy.  I love the days when I just work all day because I feel more motivated and I feel like I'm actually doing something important.  Not to mention my coworkers are all so fun to work with.  And I'm so grateful for a boss who values me enough to petition BYU to let me stay here for the summer, even though I'm graduating.  (Normally BYU student employees can only work for 2 weeks after their graduation.)

Speaking of work, there are all kinds of changes going on there.  The whole organization (OIT- Office of Information Technology), which is the largest non-academic organization on campus, is going through a massive reorganization, and as part of that, my chunk of the office will be moving into a different department under a new manager.  I love my job, and I'm sure some things will change a lot (including the location of my office) but I'm excited.  I'm so glad I get to stay while all these changes are going on.  And I'll even get to train my replacement over the summer!  Lots of things to do!

I love looking at blogs of friends who are pregnant!  Soon-to-be-moms are so cute!  I have to admit I'm a bit jealous, and I hope I can be cute like them when I'm expecting.  I was curious about some things though, so the other day I decided to do some research on how much a baby costs.  Holy cow!  Babies are expensive!  I mean, diapers, a crib, carseat... that stuff adds up fast!  But then there's all the money that goes into the hospital stay and labor and everything too.  Good grief-- I don't know how these people do it!

Ok, but the things on my mind most: learning (or thinking about learning) the ballet terms for my final, doing the final draft of my 10 page paper on Hitchcock and Poe, doing the first draft of my 12 page paper on Tolkien symbolism, and writing 2 more picture book manuscripts, mastering the front walkover, and getting up the guts to try a front handspring on the vault.  Ugh.  Oh well, only two full weeks of classes left and then I'm done!

And the countdowns:

• End of Classes: 19 days
• Aaron's Birthday: 23 days
• Mom and Dad visit: 26 days
• Graduation: 28 days
• Anniversary: 51 days
• Harry Potter: 238 days

A photo update

I've been neglecting putting up some photos that I've taken. So here they are, delayed though they may be.

Nate and Rachel gave us this great "Kimbler, Families are Forever" sign as a wedding gift, and until recently, it was sitting all alone on the wall above our dining table. We bought these frames a while ago, but we didn't have all the pictures that we wanted to put in them, and the frames were all black, which didn't look great with the brown sign. So, crafty as I'm trying to be, I bought some paint and made them brown. I'm pretty proud of myself, small accomplishment though it is. I just don't have a whole lot of time for stuff like this!Aaron is great. On Valentine's Day (kind of; we celebrated on the Saturday of that weekend), he got up before me, went to the grocery store, a florist, and came back and made breakfast. (The flowers were beautiful!) He made french toast (which was amazing-- a new recipe which I think we'll be using a lot more now!) and blueberry muffins. Unfortunately, in his rush to get all the food ready before I woke up and came into the kitchen, he misread the directions on the back of the muffin mix box and added an extra cup of water to the mix. Oops! The muffins were still good, they just don't rise and get fluffy with all that extra water. I ate one, but I left it up to my poor husband to eat the rest. Good effort, Aaron.

This is the basket I won from the Mary Kay drawing on Valentine's Day. Four friends came over yesterday for our free facials and it was pretty fun, though I didn't expect it to take as long as it did. Oh well!Oh and my countdowns? Here they are:

• My birthday: 7 days
• End of classes: 44 days
• Aaron's birthday: 48 days
  
• Graduation: 53 days

The Harry Potter countdown is too long and depressing, so I'm leaving it out for now.

Also, Aaron and I have been married for 288 days <3

Mount Doom and Mary Kay

I feel like I've been living in Lord of the Rings all semester.

I'm taking a great Senior Seminar class on Tolkien, Lewis, and Medieval Literature. I know that sounds a little random, since neither Tolkien nor Lewis are Medieval authors, but they were both Medieval scholars and wrote a lot on Medieval literature. So in addition to reading works like Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,and Pearl, I had to read the entire Lord of the Rings series in the first half of the semester.

And this is just for one class.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really loving the books, but I feel like all I do these days is read and work. Even when I'm sleeping, I dream about Frodo and Sam and Gollum and Merry and Pippin and all the other characters that I'm getting to know so well.

Unfortunately I got a little behind over Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend, and I'm just nearing the end when I was supposed to be done earlier this week. *sigh* I even forgot to eat dinner last night because I was too busy cheering Frodo and Sam on as they reached Mt. Doom.

So that's pretty much my life right now.

Speaking of Valentine's Day weekend, Aaron and I went out to dinner with Mike and Amber Turner (my old roommate and her husband) at Gloria's Little Italy. When we walked in, a lady gave Amber and I a flower each and a little paper to fill out to enter a drawing. Knowing that I rarely win anything, I filled out the form and promptly forgot about it.

Then on Monday, I got a phone call telling me that I had won! I won a free Mary Kay facial and a gift basket with a Mary Kay gift card, a Gloria's Little Italy gift card, candy, and other goodies! I'm getting my facial on Saturday and I invited a few friends to do it with me. I'm pretty excited!

Also, I just ordered my cap and gown for my college graduation. It's a little strange-- I am so ready to be done with school, but at the same time, I don't know what it's like to NOT be in school... I mean, I've always had summers off from school, but it's going to be strange to still live in Provo while Aaron and most of my ward are still students. Weird. I'll finally have time to scrapbook, and sew, and do all kinds of things I just can't do right now.

I put a couple countdowns on my Facebook profile:

• My birthday: 9 days
• Aaron's birthday: 51 days
• Graduation: 56 days
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: 266 days
  

Sweet.