mother's day and photos

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful, fantastic, loving mom's out there. (Mine's the best, but I guess I'm partial).

I got my mom flowers, took her out to dinner, and the kitten that she had been eyeballing for weeks! He is the most adorable, and he almost squeals when he meows because he's so tiny! I call him The Ewok.

His name is Scout, as in To Kill a Mockingbird.

He is so adorable, and only weighs about a pound and a half! So tiny!

 My boyfriend wrote me a letter while I was gone and I got in the mail yesterday! It was so sweet! I LOVE getting letters in the mail! Old fashioned, sit down to write, ink and paper letters. It just shows you that they were thinking about you enough to take the time to write something. I love it!
So, this is me now, on this rainy day, sitting at my jewelry making desk, re-reading my love letter, over and over:

<3

I seriously have the sweetest boyfriend ever. He is patient, kind, sweet, funny, thoughtful, and just perfect for me! I can't wait to marry him someday! Besides the sweet handwritten note, he made me a little picture card thing of us when we were kids, and a mushy message (but that part is just for me).

We were messy children.

Nathan could have possibly been the cutest kid in the world. We were watching videos of when he was a kid, and he was so adorable! AHHH! I want to go back in time and pinch his cheeks!

Also since I am trying to keep track of my hair growth, I took another picture to show how much it has grown in the 2 weeks since I got it cut!

Mehhhhhh

The front is getting long, and the back is almost to the point where I could let it grow and not look like a mullet. Grow hair, grow! What I wouldn't give to have a long long braid right about now. I also am starting something that some will think is gross. It's been known as going au natural, no-poo, or just lazy.
I quit shampooing  my hair.

What I used to feel like.

Well, that's a lie. I wash it with real shampoo maybe once a month. I started doing this when I cut my hair off. My hair, although always pretty long, was greasy at the root and super fried and dry on the ends. No matter how much hair product and oils I put on the ends, they would just soak it up and still look fried, but feel ultra greasy. That in turn, made my face break out and me a very unhappy camper. So, I cut my hair off, mostly to start over with virgin hair, and partially because I wanted something new. I noticed that with the healthy hair (I had been growing out my roots for months), I didn't HAVE to wash everyday. Then I went to 3 days. Then 4. By the 4th day, things can get a little unruly. Instead of washing it with shampoo I thought, what if I just wash it with conditioner? It wouldn't strip my hair, but it would gently clean it and make it smell good... or it will make it a giant greaseball and I just wash it again with shampoo. No biggie.
To my amazement, it turned out wonderful! Shiny hair that wasn't greasy, stinky, or gross. It just looks healthy! I washed it with shampoo a week or so ago just to get it completely clean again, but after looking online, apparently people just wash with baking soda and apple cider vinegar (or make their own shampoo). I'm going to try the baking soda one, just because it's cheap. But I want to grow my hair out this time healthy and not brittle or dry. I'll let you know how it works out! I'm trying to get boyfriend to do it too, since he has the coarsest, thickest hair ever (and I'm really jealous because I have a lot of fine hair that gets damaged if you look at it wrong. Also, Nate has the prettiest eyelashes in the world. I want them.)

Well, I'm going to go do things today. Maybe give my cat a flea bath. And then maybe go celebrate Mother's day with Nate's family. (That sounds awful that I'm not with my mom, but I was just with her and my brother for a week to celebrate today and her birthday!)

Cheers!

best weekend!

This weekend I went home with Nathan to see my mom and my brother! It's been a long time since we both got to go home, so it was wonderful! We went to Longhorn and ate the best food, and played music and drew on our old etch-a-sketch that we found (some of us were better than others...) which super made us laugh, and then on Saturday I adopted a kitten!

Pardon my hair, but meet Tango!

He's such a little love bunny (kitten)! He's the sweetest! Well, except for when we were trying to leave and he got under the bed and INTO the box spring... needless to say we were a little late to drive an hour and a half to Nate's house to eat dinner! I think he's a little jealous of Tango... but tonight he loved all over him. He'll get used to it ;)

We stayed up at Nate's house until like, one in the morning. I am far too old for that, and Nate would agree. But we had fun eating burritos and talking a lot about family and things with his mom (while Tango was sleeping on our laps... did I mention how wonderful he is?).

Then Sunday I got up early and cleaned my room so Tango wouldn't get lost in my disarray, and took a nap with Tango in my armpit, and then Nathan came over and we explored downtown Athens. I super love doing that now! I don't know why, but I used to hesitate to explore downtown. I just wasn't into it. But I love just having my boyfriend on my arm and no ideas in our head to where we are going, and we just wing it! They are the best dates! We were both super hungry so we went to the Transmetropolitan, which Nate had been to before, but I hadn't. I got some pasta that was AMAZING, and he got a chicken panini that looked pretty great too. I think we are going to try somewhere new next time we go downtown.

We had a super long talk about ex's and things... it wasn't a terrible conversation, and it definitely wasn't heated or anything. I don't really even remember what got us talking about it, but it was kind of enlightening. It definitely made me realize again how lucky I am to have met Nathan after praying and praying and praying for God to send me the right man for my heart! I take these things for granted sometimes, and just talking about our pasts made me realize how much we both have grown; even in the past year of knowing each other. I am especially proud of Nathan. He seems to have grown into a super wonderful man in the past year. He's becoming more sure of himself, putting priorities in order, etc. I like to think that I helped with that, but that's being cocky ;)

Seriously though, it was an overall good talk. I think a lot of my growth happened over the two years from 2009 to the end of 2010. I had a lot of loss in 2008 and kind of lost my mind. Getting back into church and solidifying my faith in God made ALL of the difference in my life. I knew that I couldn't get anywhere good without giving it all to God. My faith never really faded or was lost; it was just realizing what exactly being a woman of Christ meant. I had a friend bring me to the door, and I went through, and after prayers and not thinking about finding someone for awhile, God led me to the right one through a very unlikely door. And I am ever so grateful for it.

Also, notice that it is 2:00 a.m. and I have to be at a clinical at 6:30. My roommate's cat has a bell on her collar (DUMB... she doesn't even go outside. What the heck do you need that for?) and she came prancing in my room to get Tango and woke us up. Tango has no problem falling back asleep. I on the other hand...

ANYWAY, then Nathan and I went home after paroosing downtown and drinking some Starbucks and watching hipsters and cuddled with Tango and did some Mad Libs which made me realize how much the "S" word makes me giggle when used as an adjective. Seriously, I try not to cuss (or curse), but that word is just so funny when used in certain sentences.I need a big ol' giant book of those so that I can belly laugh all the day long instead of studying for Psych or Med-Surg. When am I going to be done with school?! Guh.

So, it was the best weekend I have had in a long while. ALSO, I WEIGH 136! I'm still not happy. I'm so dumb. I remember when I weighed like 150 and I said, man, I really wish that I weighed 135. I'd be so happy! But, I'm a pound away and am really hoping for more of 125. Being a woman blows. Good thing I have a supportive boyfriend who thinks that I'm pretty no matter what I say about myself. What a gentleman!

Oh, and I'm making a bucket list of sorts on Pinterest since everyone else is and I think it's kind of cool.

Long post is over. I have to cuddle with Tango and try to sleep for 3 hours or something.