Update!

Hey friends!  I have started a new blog and would be remiss if I didn't post the link on this one for you lovelies to go and follow :)

http://sunflowersentiments.blogspot.com/

Happy reading!

Found a home for kitty!

Yay!! All prayers have been answered! A friend of ours is going to take kitty, we just have to take care of the vet bill (yikes!) But, honestly it will be worth it to know she is going to a good home. 


I can't express how stressed out and sick this was making me. I am so glad we have found a great place for kitty to grow up in. 




Things happening today/soon:


Today I am making some sort of concoction in the crock pot. (Have I mention just how much I love the crock pot? Also, have you all discovered the beauty of crock pot liners? Virtually zero cleanup- it's amazing.) 
          - Crock pot concoction consists of: 2 chicken breasts, 2 hearty slices of delicious provolone, one can of cream of mushroom soup mixed with about a 1/3 can of milk, diced tomatoes, chives, Greek seasoning, pepper, and all topped with those yummy crunchy french fried onions. Voila'! Insta-meal. Well, you know, after like 7 hours of cooking on low heat :) If it turns out well I will post a picture tomorrow. 
          - I am also planning on trying my hand at making homemade biscuits. We'll see if that turns out edible as well. 
          - I am STILL waiting for my last 2 books to arrive. One of which shipped out August 5th!! Are you kidding me? It should not be taking this long. Yeash. 
          - Mine and sweetness' anniversary is coming up on Tuesday :) Three wonderful years together on the 23rd. I can't wait for our wedding on October 8th and to and start living our lives as husband and wife (sorry I got all sappy on you all there!)


          -Today is also the 3rd anniversary of one of my best friends from high school's death. Lisa was a beautiful soul and always had the most upbeat spirit of anyone I knew. She was taken from this world too soon, but she will never be forgotten. Her memory will always serve as a reminder for me to live my life as full as possible, and to not sweat the small stuff. Life truly is too short to go about being cranky all the time (as I like to think in the wee hours of the morning when I wake up, pre-caffeine). 


I'll leave with one of my favorite quotes that my bestie, Katie posted, (Katie, Lisa and I were inseparable during 9th grade):


"Perhaps they are not the stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones 
pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy."

Lots O' Thoughts.

I have a lot of thoughts sprinting around in my head these days and it has been longer than forever since the last time I posted, so I figured, Hey- let's just type it out here.

I found a stray kitty in my backyard yesterday. Or, rather, the kitty found me. I came home Wednesday afternoon and discovered approximately 3 trillion ants trailing their way along my kitchen floor to infest Squirt's bowl of cat food. So I busted out the raid and went all Orkin Man on their tiny selves. After they all stopped wiggling I took Squirt's food and dumped it outside in the grass. Well, lo and behold, I done found myself a stray.

(Again, I found her in my backyard but couldn't catch a picture of her then, she was too quick)

I have a real soft spot for kitties in my heart so I pretty much immediately took her out some food- and before you say anything I know that once you feed 'em they're yours- and slowly coaxed her out from her safe spot underneath this car. 

Once I got a real good look at her I knew she was in desperate need for food. She's about 6-9 months old and probably only 3-4 pounds. I burst into tears pretty much immediately and they are still going. She is literally once of the sweetest and most loving cats I have ever come across:

So cute! I wish we could keep her, but for financial reasons (among plenty of others- taking into account how much I travel, Squirt's quirkiness, and how much we have on our plate right now) I don't think we are going to be able to, and that just about kills me. I've been on the phone all day trying to find a no-kill shelter in the area. Sadly, most of them are full and won't take her in. I've got one place left that needs to call me back and if they can't take her then I'm not sure what I am going to do. She needs a substantial amount of medical attention and a copious amount of TLC. 

So, in the meantime I have just been bringing food out to her about every 1-2 hours and keeping her in full stock of water. This whole situation has just been weighing so heavy on my heart though.


On an unrelated note (I told ya'll, lots o' thoughts) School is starting back up for the year.
* I am excited and also SUPER, let me spell that out for you- S-U-P-E-R, stressed out about it.
* I'm taking 3 classes this term (same as last), planning a wedding for October, and trying to work enough to pay all the bills such as electricity, water, gas for my car, etc.
* I know for a fact that one class in particular is going to be excessively challenging. I was asked to go ahead and take a 2nd year class as a 1st year grad student because my advisor/teacher thought I could handle it. While that is very flattering it is also nerve-wracking because I feel like a baby guppy swimming around in the big bad ocean. I've never been one to make things easy on myself so I guess this is really no different from my everyday life.

On a side note: Can we PLEASE talk about the ridiculous expenses of books????! It makes me want to throw something, seriously. I get a stipend check every term for the program I am in, and this term I am not even sure I will have anything leftover after I calculate in the price of books. Un-freakin-believable.  That's all I'm going to say for now, except having to buy 9 textbooks for the term (with almost all of those going into the triple digits in price) is a bit excessive, don't we agree?


On a fun note: I also recently had my bridal shower/bachelorette party with all of my ladies and had a blast! I was actually pretty nervous for the shower because it is all about you, with all these people staring at you and expecting you to keep the conversation flowing and all that jazz. I can hold a conversation, sure, but when I am nervous I tend to think I have suddenly become a comedian. What? Laughter is known to break the ice! Duh! But after the initial awkwardness I loosened up and had so much fun! I can't believe so many people got together and put in all that effort to make something so special for me!

Alright, I think that's all I've got in me for today. If anyone out there is reading this feel free to pipe in on the kitty decision. I'll take all the advice and words of wisdom I can get.

Smorgasboard

Hello all! I know it's been a while, but my first semester of grad school has come to an end and let me tell you, it is a relief! Grad school is a different world from undergrad, but the last semester has gone really well! I have about a week and a half off before I start the first summer session. Call me cray cray. I know. 

Here are some pics from the never ending road trips to classes every week.

There was a huge fire on the side of the road in the farmland area. This picture really doesn't do it justice but amidst all of the rows and rows of green farm this thing was huge!

Perfect day outside and I was stuck driving. Humph.

One good thing out of constantly traveling back and forth from school was getting to see my puppy boy and sweet, only slightly crazy black cat.

As the semester came to a close I got to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of my 21st birthday. (Yes, I really am taking the anniversary of the birthday route, don't judge).
Sweetness made me a delicious breakfast, and since my birthday was so close to Easter this year he included some Reese's peanut butter eggs. Why are Reese's SO much better when they are in the shape of an egg? It's one of life's great mysteries.

We then took a trip to the farmer's market to check out all of the pretty flowers. These hibiscus' were absolutely stunning.

After grabbing lunch we headed to the beach. Let me just say how grateful I am that it is finally warm enough to head out to the beach and not have to wear sweatpants and a hoodie.

Too bad I got super sunburned. When will I ever retain the knowledge of the first-of-the-year sunburn fiasco that happens every year?

We went out to a delicious dinner, sunburn in tow, and snapped this pretty shot of the sunset going across the bridge.

All in all it has honestly been a crazy last couple of months. I did manage to finally unpack every remaining box so the place is FINALLY in order! Can I get a "Woohoo!"
Life feels like it is finally settling down (for now at least) and I think some semblance of normality might possibly be ensuing. But that could just be the lull in school activity happening for a bit. Keep your fingers crossed! :)

And alas I leave you with a picture of the kitty who has stolen my heart. This is his favorite spot in the whole house. He especially loves it when we open the window and he sits with his nose pressed against the screen.

Oh you know...

Just a random Sunday Morning photoshoot with one of my handsome boys.

The Squirt interrupted me while I was doing my Braille homework, so I thought that was a great time for some camera fun, and Squirt wasn't holdin' his handsome back!

My, oh my he is pretty.

Oh, don't mind those boxes. My whole house is practically covered in them.

You can tell he knows how good he looks.

He thinks he's the bee's knee's.

And most of the time he is.

Except for those 2am wakeup calls when he likes to jump on my face, or knock over christmas trees (this really happened) or just scare everyone with his crazy cat antics.

But when he's not being a crazy, psycho, punk cat...

He's just being cute.

Found the Dress!

Wahhoo!! Such a big event in wedding planning and now it is taken care of!

Wanna see a picture??














Too bad, it's top secret. Duh.


But I can tell you that it is a perfect. Obviously. Doesn't every bride think their dress is perfect?

I am also very pleased that it was NOT an ordeal to find. It was a very stress-free situation, and I for one could not be more relieved about that fact.

Now, you all should know that I have been in the midst of moving this past week, and for this upcoming week, so things are a little more than hectic right now. What with moving, school, work, and wedding planning. My head starts spinning rather often and rapidly.

But here are some pictures of the last few days.

I bought a new mattress. Super comfy.

Sherman waited patiently for food at the table.

Squirt became even more handsome than before.

My best friend and her precious baby girl came to visit!

That lovely boy of mine held her, and they were both adorable.

We introduced Peyton to Squirt, and it was perhaps the cutest thing ever.

The end.

My week in a nutshell.

Starting off with Monday.

Jennie goes to work,
Jennie comes home and does homework.
Jennie eats something and goes to sleep.

Jennie goes to work,
Jennie comes home and pretends to do productive things.
Jennie gets addicted to Desperate Housewives.
Seriously, seriously, addicted.
Jennie sits in a catatonic state for the next few hours, indulging in Desperate Housewives.

Jennie drives to Raleigh.
Jennie does laundry.
Jennie goes to class in Durham.
Jennie goes back to Raleigh for the night.
Jennie watches American Idol.

Jennie drives back to the east coast.
Jennie takes a tumble. Seriously. A real, honest to goodness-if someone was taping this I would have a million trillion hits on you-tube- tumble. Just call me Scarlet.
Jennie hurts her wrist. Bad.
Jennie tries to do something other than watching Desperate Housewives.
Jennie fails.

Jennie goes to work.
Jennie does school work at work-work.
Hurricane Bill sweeps through work-work, creating actual work-work.
Jennie comes home and does more homework.
Jennie cooks a late night meal of mac n cheese.

Jennie brings her man his forgotten cell phone at work.
Jennie goes to work.
Jennie watches one episode of Desperate Housewives at work via netflix for ipod touch.
Jennie thinks it's time to get help.
Jennie does work-work.
Jennie reads.
Jennie goes home and does school work.
Jennie makes another late night meal.

Jennie wakes up.
Jennie does LOTS of school work.
Jennie will be watching the most wonderfully horrible Miley Cyrus movie to make her laugh, today.
Jennie will be signing a new lease today!
Jennie will be eating Roland's BBQ (The best BBQ on the east coast, no joke!) today.
Jennie will be checking out some bedroom furniture today.
Jennie will probably do more schoolwork.
But that will most likely, probably, definitely, turn into- Jennie watches more Desperate Housewives.

Tid-bits and tiddlywinks.

It's official friends, I have lost my mind. Mostly. But I am sure this comes as no shock.

I have also been rather slack on the blogging, so here are a few pictures from the last 10 days or so that express the things that have been going on recently.

First off, I will start with the fact that I am tired of the snow. Seriously, who would have thought we would get SO much snow at the beach! Yesterday we got close to 8 inches. Honestly! 8 inches!! geez. The picture above is what my drive looked like on my way home from work when I finally decided the weather was to ridiculous to stay open any longer. I should have left earlier. Duh.

But since we had so much of it, we decided to bring in a bit of snow for Squirt so he could experience it for himself. He was decidedly uninterested.

He is, however, interested in my school books. This severely hinders my ability to study and get my work done. Which is all I do these days.

One heck of a salad that my main squeeze made me while I was in the depths of studying. So sweet, so sweet :)

And lastly, let's not forget to mention the close to 2000 miles I've driven back and forth to Raleigh for classes over the past week and a half. Poor Bertha can't handle that kind of mileage. She's well over the 200,000 mark. Let me also mention that almost all of these wonderful trips to raleigh began at approximately 5:30am. So, so fun.

Also, we found a new place to live! I am so excited!!!!! I would post pictures but it was kind of hard to get a good one, we were in a bit of a rush to check it out because I had to head to work right after. But, let me tell you, it is BEAUTIFUL! Gaaah, we will have to have a housewarming party for everyone soon! We'll be moving in starting Feb. 1st!

But, the best part of the last 10 days.....getting to see my best friend ever, and her beautiful daughter Peyton :)

I am SO in love!

Dearest friends, I will not let our talks go this far and few between again. Just as long as you're okay with my obsessing constantly posting pictures and talking about my favorite little girl ever :)

You may find me...

Banging my head on the wall.

Yep, that's me, that crazed lookin' girl with all those books and papers scattered around her.

It ain't pretty.

Overtake

The cleaning never stops! As soon as this teeny tiny apartment is clean, it becomes a sloppy mess within 24 hours! I am not entirely sure how this happens. I will just have to sit here on my bum and contemplate how this massive overtaking occurs so frequently.

In other news, Duff and I have been on the prowl for a new place to live. Perhaps once we have more room the messy piles of anything and everything will stop occuring so much. Or, at least they will take longer to pile up once we have more places to throw things.

So far we've seen an extremely small house (cottage) that is literally no bigger than the place we are at now, an extremely large house with about a million rooms that we think will be too expensive to heat, and an additional house that was just as big but needed a lot of work. So, so far not too much luck, but it is all a part of the learning process.  We have a very good possibility with a 2 bedroom townhome we have lined up to see next week, so keep your fingers crossed!

I was just called by my man and asked to look for his work keys which he apparently did not take to work.

I didn't need to look for them.

They are exactly where I put them (where ALL the keys go, mind you) yesterday while trying, in vain, to tidy the place up.

Apparently cleaning is the enemy.

The end.

Day 2

Day Two:

A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest.

This is a picture of my and my very best friend, Katie. Or Kat Kat as I call her. Don't ask. The nicknames happened a long time ago. She lives a MILLION miles away in Alaska. (Okay, a million might be an exaggeration, but still, it's Alaska!) But nothing has ever changed between us, no matter the distance. I've known this lovely lady since 3rd grade and she is one beautiful person, inside and out. Honestly one of the most amazing souls I have ever met. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful friend in my life.

In other news, it was back to work at the flower shop today, and it was S-L-O-W! Thank goodness for sudoku on my phone!  School also starts on Wednesday and it has been more than a little stressful trying to get everything in order for that.  Who knew that going to school mostly online could be so hectic? I thought it was supposed to be easier? Just call me old-fashioned, but I guess I'm just used to actually, physically, going to my classes.

And now I have the hiccups, so I must go. 

You need to understand, my hiccups are epic. Ask anyone. Especially when coupled with a coughing fit. You can imagine the scenario, I'm sure.

30 days.

First off, Happy New Year!!! Since when is it 2011? Seriously, I still feel like it should be 2005...or something. Anyone else with me? Oh well, I hope everyone's 2011 is filled with health, wealth, and happiness!

So I've seen this one floating around the internet for a while, and I suppose I'll give it a try. It's called 30 days, and it's basically a picture a day with an explanation to go along with it. I'm not even sure if anyone will be interested in this, so I promise to write about something else as well as the picture a day routine, but I figured this is a good way for the whole wide world of internet peoples to get to know me a little better. Enjoy friends, enjoy.

Day One: A picture of yourself with twelve facts.

I didn't want to choose any of the typical go-to pictures of myself, so I rooted around a bit and found this one. It was taken at Salem Lake in NC.


12 facts:


1. I love the water. Specifically the ocean, but any large body of water will do.


2. I got my Bachelor's degree in Music Performance.


3. I am getting my Master's degree in Special Education.


4. I like to cook, and  pretend I am really great at it. I can hold my own, though. Just don't ask me to make toast.


5. My Dad is completely blind and has been since he was 5 years old. He is my hero.


6. Macaroni and Cheese is my favorite food. Always has been, always will be. The end.


7. I find myself becoming more and more like my mother every day, and I love that.


8. I am in love* with my cat, Squirt. We have full blown conversations sometimes.
         * Disclaimer: I do not love everything he does, for example, knocking over my Christmas tree at 2:00 AM the other morning. Thus, not only do we love like family, we argue like family. (Well, as much as you can argue with an amazingly, adorable kitty.)


9. I physically need the sunshine. It makes me happy. I can prove this. When I was a newborn I had something wrong with me that could only be cured by sticking my newborn naked body in the windowsill with the sun shining on me for a few hours a day. Maybe it was jaundice? I don't know, I was a newborn for gracious sakes. BUT, I do blame that for why I crave the sunshine so much.


10. I love, love, love to read. Especially if it is in a hammock, outside in the sunshine. Duh.


11. My fiance' is quite possibly the greatest thing to ever happen to me. Now, I promise not to get too sappy on ya'll, but he let me be me and showed me how beautiful I am. Not the easiest thing to do for a girl whose had self-confidence issues all her life.


12. Fact: This took me way longer than I expected it would. It is hard to just come up with 12 facts about yourself on the spot! 






Just for good measure. Here's your daily dose of Squirt.

And, yes, that is a leopard print snuggie he is snuggling with. Don't judge.