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.