sweater: Banana Republic; skirt: thrifted; shoes: Bandolino; coat: Guess; scarf: Target; belt: Forever21; tights: ?

to say this weekend was a busy one would be a massive understatement.  friday ran into saturday, saturday ran into today, and now i'm left feeling a bit weary.

i went home for the weekend without the hubs, and for good reason.  friday night was spent with two out of the three of my best friends from high school.  my friend hope was leaving for nicaragua yesterday morning and i desperately needed to see her one more time before she left for four months.  i have to say, this was my absolute favorite part of the weekend.  it's amazing to me that although we don't see each other very often, and we don't really talk much outside of our reunions, we settle into such comfortable conversation.  we painted our nails, reminisced and caught up into the wee hours of the morning, and it was wonderful.

saturday was spent olive-gardening (bet you didn't know that was a verb) with my ma and the older of my two brothers.  we filled up on unlimited soup and salad and carbo-loaded on breadsticks to gear up for some shopping, and some animal-visiting at the humane shelter.  then i made them they happily volunteered to join in on the SOS action.

normally, i'm not all about kitties, but this one looked identical to an awesome cat we used to have.  seriously eerie.

then, in the evening, i met up with two of my college roommates.  it was paige's birthday and we ate mexican and went to see a sketch comedy show at shadowbox cabaret with a couple other friends of hers.  fun was had, but i was starting to feel a little ragged from all of the running around, so i took off halfway through the show to make it home to my pjams.

oh haiiiii birthday girl

getting out of bed this morning was, in one word, rough.  but up it was, to finish up my young life small group lesson and then head to my friend crystal's baby shower.  she is the third of my three high school best friends, the lone soldier that was unable to join us on friday night.  and who can blame her?  girlfriend has had a little bun cooking in the oven for about 8 months now and we didn't hang until 11pm.  she looked beautiful and the party was uber cute.  unfortunately, a) i forgot to take a pic of the gift i made for baby noble (which i was quite proud of, btw), and b) i had to cut out before it really even started to get back to fort wayne to lead small group.

loved it.

whew!  did you catch all of that?  at the end of the weekend, i'm a bit frustrated.  i hate that, although i got to spend a bit of time with everyone, i didn't really get to give all of myself to anyone.  time was given, but when there's so much focus on just surviving the weekend's demands, how much quality can really be expected from that time?  and where was my sabbath day?  bear with me this week, guys.  there's about a 72% chance that posts will be getting shorter and grumpier as the week goes on.

i apologize in advance, you know, just in case.  do you get really grumpy if you don't have a day of rest, or do you thrive on the go, go, go?

last night was our sunday school christmas party and, yup, you guessed, it was tacky-christmas-sweater themed.  our sunday school class is filled with an amazing group of people and i love them all.  we always have such a great time when we get together.

this might be one for the christmas cards...

check out the intense blame-game going on here.  this game isn't for the meek.

there was also a white elephant exchange.  wifey managed to be the hero and seal the best prize for her hubs.  was it the functioning bread maker?  nah.  was it that statue of a basketball-playing santa?  nah.  there's only one prize eric had his eye on, and who could blame him?

ohhhh yeahhhhh.

i am 24 years old.  i am a wife and a homeowner.  i already have a bachelor degree in exercise science.  by all accounts, i guess that makes me a grownup.  so why is it that i still struggle with what i want to do "when i grow up"?

i'll be honest, if i hadn't fallen in love with eric and moved to fort wayne, this probably wouldn't be an issue for me.  if not for him, i would likely be in chicago right now, continuing to do what i became passionate about during my internship in the city in 2008.  i would have my personal training certification by now and likely a list of clients that i would be helping to shape into healthier, happier individuals.  i would have my own spin class, where i could drip with sweat and yell out fun affirmations like, "you can do it!  only 10 more seconds until the top of this hill!  push through it!"  at this point in the year, we would be in the midst of a huge football-themed incentive program, and teams would be battling it out as the season draws near the end.  i would see co-workers become more competitive than you can imagine, showing up at the fitness center before work, at lunch, and after work, not even for the prize-in-store, but more for their sense of pride.  who knows, i might even be totally ripped by now (ha!).

i worked at big red...

...and this was my stage.  i miss my stage.

side note:  on the other hand, i wouldn't have the love of my life, wouldn't have found Young Life, definitely wouldn't have two dogs and probably wouldn't have felt a push to discover other passions in my life like crafting and blogging.  can you imagine?!

i loved the corporate fitness world and the sense of community built amongst co-workers.  i loved the relationships i built and guiding individuals that didn't feel like they could reach their health and fitness goals on their own.  unfortunately, there isn't really a market for corporate fitness in fort wayne, so i took on a job as a receptionist at a law office.  the job has its perks, including the same hours as eric, weekends off, and an opportunity to work with three of my close friends.  however, it's no secret that this is not what i want to do for the rest of my life.  collection law is not where my heart is.  i have too many passions in this life to spend the majority of my day doing something i don't love.

and so, the search is on, and the sky is the limit (literally - i've thought in the past that i would love to be a pilot).  i love taking pictures, so maybe i should learn the ins and outs of photography.  i know a ton about bridal fashion and love following the different designers; maybe i should work at a bridal salon or even open my own.  i really enjoy crafting and blogging, and omgosh, i've seen listings for professional bloggers.  you can get paid a salary for this???  i also really happen to love, with my whole heart, working with high school kids through Young Life and wish that i could do it all the time.  what would a job in youth ministry look like for me?

the most serious plan i've been able to come up with is this:  after having children, i would be a stay-at-home, but would teach group exercise and potentially do some personal training on the side.  i would also go back to school to get my teaching degree so that, by the time our children started school, i would hopefully be able to find a job as a high school math teacher (did i mention i think i'm some kind of weirdo that's both right- and left-brained?). 

as you can see, i'm a bit all-over-the-map.  but as far as i'm concerned, i would rather spend the rest of my life trying to pursue my passions and figure this thing out than come to the end of it and wonder why i settled. 

life is too short, folks.  what are you doing to pursue what you love?

yes, i know it's tuesday.  but i lost almost an entire day yesterday, and i'd like to reclaim a piece of that now.

yesterday, i woke up and got in the shower, only to be sucker-punched with dizziness and nausea.  i've already gotten the question several times, "are you pregnant?"  let's just dispel any rumors right here and now.  i'm fairly certain i'm not.  not that i would be upset by any means if i was.  but i digress.

so i called off work, watched a little of the today show before taking a massive nap, and then proceeded to watch about 7 episodes of friday night lights on netflix.  serious waste of space.

luckily, today i felt well enough to go to work, go shopping after, and then come home and make us a wonderful vegetarian meal.  the whole idea behind meatless monday is that cutting meat out of your diet one day per week can have significant health benefits, as well as reducing your caloric intake.

this is where it sounds really lame for me to say that we followed up our healthy dinner with peach crisp.  someone please revoke my apron and sugar jar, because i have a serious problem.

without further ado, i present to you egyptian edamame stew:

recipe can be found on my favorite cooking site ever:  eating well

by all accounts, eric and i should not be married.  this is precisely what should have happened on our first date:



yes, i am an ohio state fan through and through.  i have known the words to the fight song since i was approximately four years old (thanks dad!). 

unfortunately, eric was doomed from the start.  his dad and his dad's dad both went to U of M for college, and as a result was brought up as a wolverine.

ask 9 out of 10 buckeye fans, and they will tell you this is a deal-breaker.  but somehow, we beat the odds and instead, we ended up like this:



(side note: why do both of these have female michigan fans?  get some smarts, ladies.)

now this doesn't mean we don't face some bumps along the way.  during the game on saturday, i was in michigan with eric's family.  i rocked my scarlet and gray, but when ohio state was doing well, do you think i cheered very loudly?  heck no, techno.  i want to be invited back to neebish island, thank you. 

also, it wasn't pretty.  and as much as i try to convince myself that michigan still maintains a large lead over ohio state overall in this rivalry and that my cheering is justified, i just can't stand to see my husband unhappy.  it's really sad, actually.  i mean, we're talking pouty lip here.  and that leads me to do things like this:


i'm soooo sorry :(

but never on osu/michigan game day.  and not likely when michigan is having a winning season.  this is only because i feel sorry for my husband.  because lets face it, love makes you do crazy things. 


and without sports, this wouldn't be disgusting.