getting settled.

What a summer I’ve had already, and I’ve only been out of school for 11 days.  I traveled all the way to Missouri and back, and basically stopped everywhere in between.  I moved back home, am STILL unpacking the sickening amount of junk I have piled up over the last 3 years, and have begun the dreadful summer job of cleaning for my parents.  It’s amazing how fast it’s gone after looking back on all the posts about how close I was to graduation; even that seems so long ago now.

And God has blessed me.  Seriously.  After graduation, I started freaking out a bit about my financial situation.  I have to start paying off college debt in just a few short months and I’m only working about ten hours a week cleaning office buildings, so it hit me that I might not be able to spend my money on anything other than college payments if I don’t find another job.  But low and behold, my God provides.

I made money from graduation gifts.  That was pretty nice, but a little expected.  Then I decided to try to sell this cute chair I had just bought for $7 at a church sale (I had just decided it didn’t fit in with the rest of my furniture, adorable as it was.) and ended up selling it for $40.   I’m having a garage sale in about a week and a half and it turns out that all the build-up of college things I’ve collected are turning into quite an attractive-looking little sale, so hopefully I can make a good amount off of that.  And then I’ve got four different photo shoots coming up in the next 2 months.  Doesn’t sound like a lot, but three of them are weddings and those alone will pay for a good chunk of my upcoming bills.

Even though these are mostly just everyday ways that people make money, I know God is helping me out big time, cause he knows I’ve had a lot on my mind lately.  I feel like I’m in a season of so many changes right now.  I just graduated, my parents and I are in the process of tearing apart and re-doing our entire house, I’m planning a wedding, Matt started at his job at the church on Monday, and I’m preparing myself to move to a new city in just 9 1/2 months.  Eek!  So anyway, God must know that the financial stuff really should be the last thing on my list of to-do’s right now, so He’s working it out for me.  That’s how I’m choosing to look at it, at least.

Oh! I got a new computer, too, thanks to my amazing fiance.  It’s got all the Photoshop programs I could ever need, so now I can officially feel like a professional photographer.  I just have to learn to use the program first… ha.  I also figured it would be fun to write a new post on my new computer. :)

Alright, I feel like I’m rambling.  I promise my posts won’t be like this all summer, I’m just exhausted and don’t feel like being super creative right now so I’m settling for my simple, probably boring, plain old thoughts tonight.  I’ll be more creative soon, after I’m officially moved back in!

farewell, college.

I finished college strong…with a boba ball spitting contest.  If you don’t know what boba balls are, they’re these tapioca balls that go in your tea to make it creamier.  I personally thought they were disgusting, they have the consistency of those slap hands I used to have as a kid.

Remember these?

Okay, maybe the boba balls are a little bit different, but seriously, if you throw them on a wall, they stick.  And people actually eat that stuff.

Not me.  I spit them out.  Along with my other RA friends.  We made a game out of it, and I happened to get some pictures (don’t worry, they aren’t gross, just hilarious).

This is what boba balls look like:

And here’s what they look like in your teeth (…well, Olivia’s teeth, at least.):

And thus begins the Spit Fight.

At this point, we started spitting them at each other.  Sick, I know, but don’t knock it till you try it.

Ten points if you hit someone in the face.    ;)

The final result: about a hundred little boba balls all over the ground.

So this spit fight, this immature, fantastic, hilarious spit fight, will forever be one of my last memories of my college days.  It’s so weird to think that I’ll be graduating in just 3 days.  I remember posting about graduation being months away, and now it’s practically here.

I have so many memories, mostly good ones, some bad ones, but all of them memories that I would never have experienced had I not come to college.  Like everyone says, it’s bittersweet to leave, but I can’t help but smile at the future.  Ten months from today, I become a married woman.  I’m going to enjoy every second of this lovely time in my life; how could I not??  God has blessed me immeasurably more than I could have asked.

So goodbye,  dorm life.  Goodbye, classes.  Goodbye, homework and tests.  Goodbye, college.

Well, hello there, life.

coffeebuzzz.

You would think by now, after three years of drinking coffee at night to stay awake for college assignments, I would learn that it really does keep me awake and if I have no intentions of staying up until the crack of dawn then I should avoid that delicious drink any time after, let’s say like, 1 p.m.

Well…here I am, 10 days from graduation, and I still drink coffee WAY too late at  night, resulting in a wide awake mind when I really need to get some shut eye.

It’s probably a good thing, though, for the sake of posting, because I really haven’t posted much lately (blame it on school.  Or engagement rings.  Whatever.)  and now I have the perfect opportunity!

My sweet, amazing, wonderful, brilliant, thoughtful, hardworking, did I mention sweet? fiance, gave me news tonight that he might be getting a hold of Photoshop for me in the near future, and that excitement mixed with the caffeine, has made me much too jittery to sleep.  And also encouraged me to look through some of my old photos to keep me from going INSANE at not having taken any new ones lately.  I’m dying to edit some new shots likeeerightnow.

But since I can’t, I had to just settle with going back in time a little and actually surprising myself with some of the stuff I did back in the day.  (By the way, if my thoughts are too sporadic tonight, I apologize.  We all know what caffeine does to the brain…)   ANYWHO, trying to stay somewhat focused here, I’m gonna post a few of the little treasures I found.  I also added my new logo!   It’s basically the same as the old one but it’s new for me, since I just recently figured out exactly how to make it juuust right.

This is my precious little fur ball, Pheonix.  Please, you know can’t resist smiling at that that tiny little face.

These two photos above are from a church project I did last summer.  They basically had to portray faith and community.

The last four photos are from when I used to babysit for one of the church families and they kindly let me take some photos of some of their summer adventures in the back yard.

Wish I had more, but these were fun to find anyway.

You know, I think another big reason why I got so interested in looking at old photos today was that it gave me a chance to go back in time for a minute.  I’m really not usually for looking back on the past too much, just because there are always so many better things in the future, but it really hit me hard today that I am growing up and there is not a single thing I can do about it.  I’m graduating in 9 days, and getting married in 310 (have you guys noticed my continuous pattern of countdowns lately? ha.) and kids don’t do those things.  Kids don’t wear engagement rings, plan weddings, take finals, graduate from COLLEGE, or anything of the sort.  I’m becoming a real adult, and it’s scary, but it’s exciting.  I”m ready, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a bit of a shock that results in looking back on my years a bit.

It’s amazing to see how much God has changed me since those little kid days of drawing chalk houses on the driveway and ruining my favorite Barbies by playing with them in the bath tub too much.  He’s teaching me “money sense” as I begin to think of moving into a REAL house (or apartment…) next year, and preparing me for career building and home making.  He’s teaching me patience and selflessness as I move closer to being someones wife.  …Wife.   AHH.

But it’s all good.  It’s the most exciting time in my life, or so I’ve been told.  I’m enjoying every second of it, even if every once in a while I just want to go back to being that little girl who had dance parties in her room to those fantastic boy band songs.  (Okay, let’s be serious….I still do that.)

Well, enough rambling for one late night.  Hopefully my brain has worked itself enough that I might get some sleep sometime in the near future.

E.