It's Saturday at noon and it feels a bit weird to be writing a blog post on Saturday at noon but the facts are that my husband is playing 18 rounds of golf in 100 degree weather and I am sitting in an air conditioned home and my fingers are begging me to write. So write I will.
On Thursday night I sat at a table with these four adorable girls and we talked all things blog. I have been tempted to give up on the Bloggers Roundtable- at least for the summer. Too much other stuff going on. That afternoon, when three girls cancelled because other stuff had come up, the effort required to gather people together seemed too much for me.
But then Aubrey, Kimberly, Melinda, and Chelsea showed up and we had the best dang two hours of blog conversation, and I felt so uplifted and inspired and motivated that I thought to myself how blessed I am to have these crazy blogging opportunities.
The overall feeling I had coming away from Thursday's roundtable was that I blog to write. That's why I started, but sometimes it becomes a bit convoluted and messy what with sponsorships and paid campaigns and all that jazz. It felt good to re see my focus. To write. To tell stories. To connect.
So today I'm going to write. Not about anything particular, but I'm going to take to my blog and just write out my thoughts like I did in the first days and months of this blog's existence.
This week Greg and I signed a year lease for an apartment. We have been living with my mom for the past year (what lead us to my mom's basement here and here) and it's time to live on our own again. I never imagined that living at my mom's would be the huge blessing that it has been. It's funny sometimes how we make plans and then God just kind of throws them all out the window and takes us down a different path. I've been extremely grateful to be closer than ever with my mom this year and to see Greg and my mom's relationship flourish. It has indeed been a blessing.
But it's time to move on. I do believe we've over stayed our welcome. Greg and I found a one bedroom apartment in Lehi with granite countertops, a pantry (gasp!) and even a walk in closet (double gasp!) It'll cost us a pretty penny, probably a penny prettier than we should spend, in fact, but we're excited. We would have been able to resist if it weren't for what I saw in the bathroom.
A honking huge bathtub.
That was when I grabbed the contract, scribbled my name on the dotted line, and threw the deposit money down. This apartment would be ours. It's weird to put money down for big bathtubs, I admit, but I know myself well enough. Come winter I'll be trudging home every day from school and soaking in hot bubble baths with my books. Well, the books wouldn't be soaking with me, but you get the picture, right? It's about the only thing that gets me through January and February. We all have our coping mechanisms, people.
It doesn't hurt that the apartment is the perfect location, right next to the freeway and only 10-15 minutes away from my work. After two and a half years of 45-60 minute commutes I think I can get used to being 10 minutes away.
Oh, and it has a balcony. A balcony so I can get back to my people watching and sun sitting ways. I mean, hey, it was thanks to a balcony that my husband entered my life. I think it's time to bring balconies back into my life. Maybe this balcony will bring a baby into my life? No? Too much? Ok.
The annoying thing is we can't move in until August 27 because that's when the apartment will be ready. I already start teaching again on August 19 and August 27 is a Tuesday. Nothing sounds fun about moving on a hot Tuesday in August after having taught all day. Beer me strength. (And ten points if you know that reference.)
If we're talking about starting school up again I guess I should tell you I'm a little scared to start teaching at a new place. After three years at Copper Hills I was friends with the teachers and the students all liked me and sometimes when I think about starting all over again, wow, it sounds exhausting. But I'm hip, right? Those seventeen year olds will like me, won't they? I'll have to paint my fingernails black and wear cute shoes and then surely I will win them over?
In other news, I've been a bit frustrated this month as my blog readership has been drastically down. I try to not care about that stuff, but how do you make yourself not care about something you so obviously care about? I'm trying to figure out if it's just the normal summer slump or the quality of my writing has gone down or some kind of terrible combination of the two.
My mom is in Germany this week visiting my sister who just gave birth with no epidural to a nine pound baby. Sounds miserable, huh? My mom told my sister not to tell me about how rough the delivery was because then I would never want to have kids. Yes, the women in my family are scheming against me.
I miss my sister. She hasn't lived in the same state as me for ten years and she hasn't lived in the same country as me for four of those years. Wouldn't it be nice if we could make people live exactly where we wanted them to live?
My mom's dog, Buddy, is on my last nerve. I like this dog, I do. After living with him for one year I have grown surprisingly attached. But then he barks when I'm trying to sleep and chews up carpet and humps other dogs and I thought I loved him but now he's driving me insane. I wonder if that's how people feel about their kids? Maybe if their kids chewed up carpet and humped dogs...
Tomorrow I am going to play Risk with my husband and maybe my mother in law. Everyone hates Risk except me. But Greg got four hours of golf this morning so I get four hours of board game domination tomorrow. Fair trade, right?
Over and out.
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