Total Recall

I feel like I should update you on what's been going on during my blog absence.

I picked up more hours at work (which I feel like I've already told you) so I've been really busy trying to juggle work, school, being wife, and a new homeowner. Wednesday night was the first night I had slept for more than 4 hours in almost 2 weeks.

Ridiculous, right?

Basically I've been waking up around 8 to get to work, work till 5 and come home to cook dinner/clean the house, then I would try to cram some homework in there (I had finals in one of my classes last week...talk about stressful!), and then John and I would be up until like 4 in the morning sometimes trying to get the house together for our housewarming party that was on Wednesday.

Our projects to get the house in the condition we wanted it for our party were:
Paint the master bedroom
paint the master bathroom
paint the guest bathroom
paint the living room
get the office set up
get the guest bedroom set up
clean out the garage
clean up the backyard
clean up the front yard
plant some kind of garden (flowers, herb, or vegetable)

Well we didn't get our bathroom painted, the office really set up (although it's clean), and we didn't plant any type of garden....but the rest of it looks pretty darn good.

Our housewarming party was great....aside from the fact that none of our friends showed up, just family....but other than that it was great. We had amazing food. John and I were up all night getting stuff finished and food made. We had Carolina pulled pork, melon salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, salmon dip, chocolate covered strawberries, strawberry pie, sour cream cookies, cupcakes, and orange julius to drink. Everything was homemade (except for the cupcakes....a friend from work made those for me). By the end of the night I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in calories. It was a little disheartening that none of our friends showed up though. It was tough on both of us because we both knew that if we would have had a party back home, the house would have been jam packed with friends. But it's so hard to gain those types of friendships in a new place.

As far as school goes I'm still trying to figure out how to balance my studies and work. I've had to take two days off so far just to get homework and exams done because I really have no time to do it all. I've worked while going to school before, but never this much with so many responsibilities at home too. I have a lot of respect for single parents that do this with a kid. I'd be a lot more stressed out if I had to do that.

In other news, John's birthday is on Monday. I'm really excited to surprise him with his present. He's been wanting a recliner soooo badly, and he works so hard that he deserves one. But I couldn't really afford one all on my own so my grandma pitched in and helped and John's brothers are going to put some money towards it too. I'm so excited to see his face when he opens it! We'll also be going down to the coast and spending the day there. I'm excited :o)

On top of that, my sister Bailey is coming out to stay with us for a few days on Thursday. Super excited to see her! Not sure what we're all going to do yet, but I see another trip to the coast in our near future.

OH! and how could I forget! John and I have a beautiful baby niece! Did I tell you that already? Her name is Kennedy and she is beautiful. She was born last month, which is why I thought maybe I had mentioned it, but  forgot I hadn't been on here in almost a month so I probably didn't. She's precious. I love being an aunt to that beautiful baby girl. 

Lizzie and I also decided to get best friend tattoos when she comes out at the beginning of next year. We're going to get small script on our sides- one will say "Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense..." and the other will say "...and to have her nonsense respected." We can't decide who will have which phrase because we both love them both equally haha, but I'm really excited. This will be my first tattoo so I'm nervous, but it couldn't be more perfect for the two of us.