Oh, Mishka

Adventures with This Handsome Guy

2013-05-14T23:30:00.001-06:00

You guys. Now that school is over, I actually get to see my husband! I'm not kidding when I say I only saw him around 6 days a month during this semester. In fact, having surgery was almost nice because I got to take a week off and be at home with Jordan and the kitties haha. How sad is that?

To celebrate the two weeks I have off until summer classes start, we're doing everything! And by everything, I meant spending this weekend in Vegas and next weekend in Montana. SEE ALL THE FAMILY (that is my goal). I get to see my mama and little bro in Vegas and daddy in Montana, along with Jordan's family and our friendos in MT, too. Hooray!

Although I usually stay at my mom's house when I visit Las Vegas, Jordan and I are having a real vacation and staying on the Strip. Of course, we'll hang out with my family lots, but we're also going to enjoy wandering around aaand some beverages. :) If you have any recommendations of places to see/drink/eat, let me know! We'll be staying at The Paris hotel this time!

P.S. I spent a little time reading and napping in the backyard this weekend. Obviously, the 30 minutes of sun I got on Sunday was enough to give me a little sunburn and bring out my freckles like crazy. Vegas should be fun (if I have sunscreen, that is!).

A Street Dance Video

2013-05-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

When I was putting together my indoor herbs video over the weekend, I found some videos from last summer that I never shared! This is my favorite. Jordan and I walked to the street dance in our little town to meet up with some friends one evening. Warm summer nights with my husband and friends are basically the best thing ever.

Can't wait to spend all of this summer with my handsome husband! We get to celebrate our one-year anniversary in July and I can't believe it's already been that long since our wedding.

New Summer Beauty Favorites

2013-05-08T00:53:00.001-06:00

I picked up some new summer beauty products on a recent trip to Target. I'm always looking for new lip colors (read: I can't stop myself from buying them. It's a problem.) and I loved this moisturizing balm from Maybelline. This is the Pin Up Peach shade, and I also have One Size Fits Pearl. They're my favorites recently. Heavy lip color in the spring just feels out of place.

Paired with a lighter foundation and a bright manicure, I'm really loving all of my new summer beauty essentials. Oh, and how cute is that votive? I found it tucked away in a little corner on sale. I feel like that's where most of my great finds at Target come from.

Indoor Herbs Video + Garden Planning

2013-05-05T18:12:00.000-06:00

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

I made a little video of my new indoor potted herbs! Can you tell how excited I am about them? Hopefully they'll start growing soon! (The music is called The Guy that Says Goodbye to You Is out of His Mind by Griffin House.)

This whole process has been a lot of fun. Last year's garden was a struggle and we really didn't know what we were doing. The plants did well for the first couple weeks, but we were out of town after that for our wedding and honeymoon. Leaving plants alone with just our friends to check on them for a couple weeks in July turned out about as well as you'd expect. Plus, we weren't really sure how to come up with a good watering schedule on our own, anyway. Here are some pictures of when our garden was still thriving last summer.

Pretty, right? But then pretty much all of it died. I think it was the combination of poor soil, heat, and irregular watering. Basically, the ideal conditions to grow a garden of nothing. So this summer, I want to use more planters and raised garden beds. I think the smaller soil area will make it easier to water, and weeding will sure be less of a pain!

These planters and garden beds from Home Depot are at the top of my list. It's still just a little too cold at nights here in Idaho to start planting anything yet, but it's a great time to get it all planned out in advance.

Links:
1. raised garden bed
2. tall trellis planter
3. self-watering planter
4. square wooden planter

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too.

Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts.

Click here to join the world’s largest garden community today! Or go to
http://gardenclub.homedepot.com/ to see some of the many benefits of membership.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

Indoor Herbs: Before and After

2013-05-04T12:25:00.002-06:00

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

I have to say, one of the nicest parts of my new little indoor herb garden is how it brightened up our dining room. Before, we had our white shelf full of drinks and glasses, our own little twist on a bar cart. But it felt crowded and dull, which means something needed to change.

Now our dining room looks bright and fresh. Once these little seeds get to actually growing, it will bring a vibrance that our dining room was seriously missing before.

The trick is to actually get the seeds to grow. In the past, I've been guilty of both over-water and/or under-watering my plants. (A green thumb I am not.) I chose planters that will drain well so even if I accidentally over-water my herbs a time or two, the drainage might help a bit.

Better yet, I scoured the Home Depot Garden Club's forums for tips on watering indoor herbs. Apparently just by checking the depth of moisture in the potting soil, I can tell if my plants need to be watered. Who knew?! (Seriously, this is how bad I have been at growing things in the past.) HD's gardening forums are basically what will save my new indoor herb garden.

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too.

Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts.

Click here to join the world’s largest garden community today! Or go to
http://gardenclub.homedepot.com/ to see some of the many benefits of membership.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

A Little Friend

2013-05-03T22:28:00.000-06:00

Truth: the whole reason I'm blogging right now is so I could share this picture of Teddy. But I mean, Mister Theodore Roosevelt is so darn cute, it's totally justifiable.

In other news, I'm almost done with this semester! I just have a three big articles to write for a journalism class in the next couple of days and two finals left! Classes are officially over and I could not be happier. Everything is starting to turn green outside; I'm ready to have a little bit of fun already!

How to Plant an Indoor Herb Garden

2013-05-02T00:19:00.001-06:00

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

Planting my indoor herbs was so easy! Compared to the struggle of a full garden, planting seeds in adorable little pots was an amazingly simple little project. Plus, I had some adorable little "helpers." I mean, they mostly just stood at my feet and yowled because they hate when they can't see what I'm doing, but at least they were there for support?

The actual planting process was great. I used organic potting soil from Home Depot and organic herb seeds. Before I started, I had fun browsing the Home Depot's Garden Club Pinterest page to see what other bloggers have done for some spring growing projects.

I wish I could post a step-by-step tutorial for this, but it was pretty much: put organic soil in pots, put seeds in shallow holes, cover seeds with soil, water soil. If you're looking for a really easy way to start growing edible plants, I highly recommend indoor herbs. You don't have to worry about weather, which means you can water on a regular schedule without needing to consider heat or rain. For someone who isn't always focused on plant watering (obviously, I'm talking about myself ha ha), this is ideal.

Since I needed to keep my plants high enough that Teddy can't eat them, I decided to do a little makeover of the shelf in our dining room. I'll post before and after photos soon!

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too.

Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts.

Click here to join the world’s largest garden community today! Or go to
http://gardenclub.homedepot.com/ to see some of the many benefits of membership.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

My First Year at The Bengal

2013-04-27T14:42:00.002-06:00

After writing for my university's newspaper for most of this academic year, I can easily say the experience has been exactly like I expected and also nothing like I expected. Just as I thought I would, I wrote a lot of stories about people accomplishing great things on campus. What I didn't expect was how much I would absolutely love getting to bring these people's efforts to light. My most rewarding article this year was a feature on student soldiers and veterans. I don't mean it was rewarding in that I got a lot of praise for it. I have nothing but the utmost respect for anyone in our armed forces and getting the chance to tell the stories of some ISU veterans was amazing.

One thing I definitely didn't expect was that people would be pissed about anything I wrote. However, I was assigned an article about a controversial issue on campus and I did my research and wrote the article. Naturally, people don't like being portrayed in a bad light and I definitely heard from them about it. The best part of that experience was learning about myself as a journalist. I loved the investigative process, but I was miserable about the articles. Writing anything negative about people, even when it's fact-based, is not for me. At least I've learned that while I'm still in school and not after I have a real-world job that I quickly learn I hate! Luckily, those articles are few and far between at ISU.

Oh, and my most exciting experience was getting to cover the Emerson Drive concert recently. I've been a fan of the band for over 10 years and even saw them in concert back in 2005 when I was a senior in high school. So when I got the chance to write a review of their concert at ISU and interview them, you can just imagine how thrilled I was! Seriously, I never would have expected that writing for my college newspaper would give my the opportunity to interview a band with chart-topping singles. It was definitely a memorable experience.

Tips and Tricks for Indoor Planting with Home Depot

2013-04-25T23:11:00.000-06:00

I'm partnering with Home Depot to present a series of posts about my new little indoor herb garden.

Since it turns out I'm not so great yet at outdoor gardening, I thought I'd go with my one of my strengths: house plants. I've managed to keep most of my houseplants alive, as long as I keep them high enough that Teddy can't eat all of them. While I didn't have much luck with my edible plants in my garden last summer, I'm thinking if I grow these herbs indoors (and on a high shelf) I just might have some better luck. And because herbs are crazy expensive at the grocery store, I'm definitely looking forward to saving a few dollars on those each week.

So I headed to Home Depot to buy some herb seeds, all-natural edible plant fertilizer, and planters. I found the absolute cutest cupcake themed planters; I bought one of each. I have the white, turquoise, and the little white set of three. I already had some organic potting soil from a house plant adventure earlier this year, so I'm all set.

For the herbs themselves, I chose Burpee's line of organic seeds. The least amount of chemicals in my foods, the better. After thinking about what herbs I use the most and/or would like to start using, I picked out some chives, basil, oregano, and parsley. I haven't used chives much recently, but I use a whole lot of basil and oregano in summer recipes. I'll have fun experimenting with my chives. The parsley will be perfect for juicing. Green juice can always benefit from the extra kick of flavor that a small handful of parsley adds.

One resource I'm really looking forward to using is Home Depot's Garden Club forums. Until the past year or so, I've never tried to grow anything. My experiences have been fun, but not always successful. It'll be nice to see what people with actual gardening success have to say when I run into problems.

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too.

Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts.

Click here to join the world’s largest garden community today! Or go to
http://gardenclub.homedepot.com/ to see some of the many benefits of membership.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot. Stayed tuned for the next posts that follow my indoor herb growing adventures!

Arm Doodles

2013-04-23T19:44:00.002-06:00

Sometimes, when you're really stressed it can seem like everything is piling up and you forget to pay attention to the little things. This semester has been rough. Dealing with being really sick, then surgery, and then really sick again is an awful lot when I'm also taking 5 classes and working. Oh, and the fact that I only see my husband about 6 days a month due to school and work schedules. The amount of crying I've done this semester is more than I can remember in a long time. Clearly, I don't deal with stress well (but I mean, who really does?).

Instead of letting my piles of work overwhelm me, I'm taking time to have fun and be silly. I made countless lists of everything I need to get done in the next 3 weeks, and I'm tackling them as best I can. So I'm completely enjoying the goofy little parts of my days too, like the kid who's teaching me Burmese drawing all sorts of Harry Potter designs on my arms while I ask him to translate really gross lists of illnesses into Burmese. I mean, what kind of day even is this?

Now it's 7:45 and I'm headed back to the library computer lab for at least a few hours. But at least I have this badass Dark Mark on my arm. Oh, and an owl wearing sunglasses perched on a bone. And a lightning bold and a Snitch. Because why not?

P. S. That Montana tattoo actually is real. Gotta show off the 406. :)

A Little Help from Mister Rogers

2013-04-15T16:38:00.001-06:00

After an entire afternoon of watching news coverage of the Boston Marathon explosions and reading social media updates, I had to turn off my tv. The images showed over and over were heartbreaking and sickening. The thought that keeps running through my mind is that these people dedicate so much of themselves to running. Then to watch the news and hear of how many people lost legs and feet today...it's devastating. Not only were lives lost and others changed forever, but now some of these overwhelmingly passionate people had their greatest interest taken away, possible forever. My heart is just broken for everyone in Boston and their families today.

Whenever a tragedy like this occurs, such as the shootings in Newtown and Aurora, CO, I am always encouraged to see the emergency responders who run in to a situation that everyone else desperately wants to flee from. In the face of such human pain and loss, those heroes provide hope. And every time, I think back to this quote from Mister Rogers. It makes me feel a little better, and I hope it helps you, too.

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world."
-Fred Rogers

Hair Drama

2013-04-15T01:02:00.003-06:00

Oh heyyyyyy, you guys. Yes, that's me. I'm still around. And with brown hair now! I actually dyed it brown a day or two after I dyed it red. I just did not love red hair on me (plus the dye I used was too orange and cheap looking, not my fave).

The sad thing is, with going from my natural dark brown hair to platinum blonde to red and then back to brown, my hurr is fried. So I'm putting away the heat styling tools for a while and letting my naturally curly hair do its thing. However, it's not so cute most days. I'm still struggling with finding the balance between not-enough-hair-products-to-tame-the-frizz and so-much-product-my-hair-looks-wet-and-greasy. Clearly, it's a charming look while I'm experimenting.

If you have any tips on how to tame, but not smother, naturally curly/wavy hair, let me know! I'd sure appreciate any advice I can get.

Bright New Hair and Glasses

2013-04-02T10:00:00.000-06:00

I got new glasses! And you can get some for free, too!
Also, my hair is red! I got tired of how high maintenace (and damaging) blonde was, so I'm going back to a darker shade. I've always wanted bright red hair, so I decided to go for it before I dye my hair dark again.

Anyway, back to the free glasses! My friends over at Firmoo are giving away free glasses to first time customers. It's a pretty sweet deal.

The great folks at Firmoo sent me another pair of glasses to review. Obviously, I went a little crazy this time. Previously I've picked black and then brown glasses, so I figured a crazy hue was in order this time. These also have a fun eggplant and cream geometric pattern on the sides.

Spring Garden Projects

2013-04-01T14:25:00.000-06:00

It's April! The days are finally getting warmer and longer. We can finally leave the windows open in the afternoons, which I'm loving because stale indoor winter air creeps me out. Most importantly, we get another chance to grow a vegetable garden. Last year's was not very successful. Between the clay in the soil, weeds, ants, and weather patterns we weren't used to, Jordan and I had a rough gardening year. Not to mention that it was our first time growing a vegetable garden!

Our backyard is huge and gorgeous, thankfully, so we have plenty of room for gardening. This year, I want to try raised garden beds. It'll be easier to water our plants since this will have improved drainage. Also, we'll have a way easier time keeping weeds out. I hate weeding.

Home Depot's Garden Club has an easy way to set up raised bed gardens, which I'll definitely be trying out. They have a lot of other great springtime ideas, too. I want to start seeds indoors this year, but, unfortunately, my Teddy cat likes to eat everything green. (We were browsing house plants at Home Depot this weekend and I had to look up every single one on my phone to make sure it's not toxic for cats. Nosy little cats are funny, but inconvenient!)

Although starting seeds indoors is out of the question for now, I do want to do this Garden Club project to create paver paths between our raised beds. Aside from helpful tutorials, the Garden Club also has how-to videos, $5 off your first $50 purchase, 8 new projects to help you #DigIn to spring, and advice from the experts.

Have any of you created raised garden beds? Let me know how you did it! :)

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need for spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, The Home Depot has you covered.

Spring is the perfect time for all your outdoor home renovations. Shop The Home Depot for terrific values on new patio furniture, landscape supplies such as fertilizer and potting soil and outdoor grills. Keep your lawn and garden looking great, too, with the huge selection of lawn mowers, edgers and trimmers, and garden tools.

Visit The Home Depot Garden Club for product ideas from kick-starting your Spring with seed starter kits to building a window birdfeeder.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

Living Room Paint Progress

2013-03-29T15:44:00.000-06:00

When we moved in to our house, the walls in the living room were a yellowy-beige color and some were just a gloomy yellow color. I know, you don't think yellow can ever be gloomy, but that is wrong. See the wall above the front door with the antler mount on it? Gloomy as heck. Plus the mismatched wall colors were driving me nuts.

So we went to Home Depot and picked out some paint samples, I was picky and didn't like any of them, so I went and bought a gallon of what I thought was going to be a really light gray/blue.

NOPE. Our living room looks like a little boy's nursery. Not quite what I was going for. That is why the only picture I'm even showing you of it is from my Instagram feed. This filter makes it look less blue, but it's really awful. Not to mention the fact that this wall meets in corner with our dark blue statement wall, which now looks tacky as can be. It's a serious blue overdose in here.

So we're off to Home Depot again this week to pick up some new paint. I'm actually thinking about going with the first paint sample we got. Jordan will be thrilled to hear that (since I already ruled it out and painted the entire wall a different color).

The funniest part is that I did this with our blue wall too! We painted the whole wall one color, then I took one look at it and started crying because I hated it so much. Obviously that was a little dramatic, but it wasn't good. So, a year ago, back we went to the store for a new color. Let's hope this doesn't turn into a horrible tradition while we slowly redo the whole house!

Week of Juice Progress

2013-03-26T14:53:00.001-06:00

This week of juicing has been fun so far! I was a little nervous that it would feel tedious, but it really doesn't. Since Saturday, I've had at least one big glass of fresh juice every day. I've tried different recipes and ingredients, including two kinds of sweet potato juice!

My only issue so far has been that I love fruit juices, but I'm struggling to make more vegetable-based juices. I've got them about 50/50, but I need to start trying to drink mostly vegetable juice so I'm not getting so much sugar each day from juice. You, my darling readers, have given me suggestions for some great green juices that I plan to try today. I just made a trip to the store to stock up on kale, cucumber, and parsley. Wish me luck!

By the way, people have been asking what juicer I use. I bought mine from Walmart a few years ago and can't find it anywhere now. But this Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juice Extractor looks very similar to mine. Or leave a comment letting us know what juicer you use, because I know a lot of my readers would appreciate the recommendations!

A Week of Juicing: An Experiment

2013-03-23T21:35:00.001-06:00

I really don't think it's even possible for someone to get sick as often as I do. Like, I think this is a mean joke my immune system is playing on me. Eventually, it'll just say, "I'm only kidding! I actually work! As a reward for putting up with my funny joke, you'll never be sick again!"

If only.

In the meanwhile, I'm taking matters into my own hands. I already eat pretty healthy, but there's always room for improvement. Especially in the juicing department, I could do better. Currently, I go through phases every couple of months where I get really into juicing, but then I forget for a day, then two days, then a whole month goes by without noticing. I blame the cleaning. If I didn't have to take my juicer apart and clean pulp out of it every time I juiced, I would seriously have juice for every meal. I love it that much.

This week, I'm on spring break. And that means I'll have plenty of free time in which I can clean my monster of a juice machine. So my goal for this week is to have at least one glass of fresh juice each day. I have a pretty miserable cold at the moment and I'm hoping all the nutrients from juicing will help me kick this. Colds usually follow a pretty predictable pattern for me, and I get so many that I'm well practiced in knowing what to expect. So we'll just see if juicing speeds this process along. Fingers crossed!

As always, you can follow my adventures on Twitter and Instagram (my username is ohmishka on both). I'll also be sharing some of my favorite juice recipes throughout the week. If you have a recipe you think I should try, let me know! Juicing is the one area of food that I'm super adventurous.

Theodore Roosevelt and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

2013-03-18T22:27:00.002-06:00

You know those days when everything seems to be going good and then you're totally blindsided by something horrible? Yeah. That was today. Just to let you know before I tell the whole story, Teddy is doing much better now.

Today was vet day for the kitties. Cubby needed a weigh-in and subsequent health recommendations, because apparently 17.5 pounds is way too much for a cat. Oops. Teddy was due for vaccines. When we got him a year ago, we only had him vaccinated for rabies in case the previous owners had already done the other shots recently. The hard thing about adopting adult cats from shelters is a usual complete lack of information about their health. (But there are a million good things about getting adult animals, especially from shelters. Everyone should do it!) So anyways, Theodore got three shots today and the vet tech casually mentioned that some cats have a slight reaction to vaccinations. Danny never did, and neither has Cubby, so I wasn't too worried.

Ted spent the afternoon napping and being extra cuddly, but I figured he was just sore from three shots and exhausted from trying to bite and claw as many people as possible. He's the sweetest cat in the world until a vet starts poking and prodding at him. Then he just wants revenge. But that's aside from the point (unless you are our vet, in which case I'm very sorry about your arm!).

Jordan is working a night shift this week, so I've been alone with the kitties. Around dinnertime, I realized Teddy wasn't eating or drinking, or doing much of anything really. He's normally a super active guy, so that was weird. Then I paid more attention to him and realized he was panting, really shallow quick breaths. That's exactly what my Danny cat did in the few days before she passed away, so I freaked out. Granted, Danny had a tumor that suddenly caused fluid to leak into her chest and Teddy was only having a reaction to vaccines, but it instantly brought back those same feelings of terror and helplessness.

I called the vet, who lives 30 minutes away, and asked him to come in and look at Teddy. He said one of the small risks of vaccination is anaphylactic shock, and that was maybe what was happening. So naturally, I spent the 30 minutes waiting for the vet sobbing and praying Teddy's throat wouldn't close up before the vet made it to town. Let me tell you, being alone and completely helpless in that moment is the worst thing in the world. I can't even imagine how parents handle having sick children, because I think I would genuinely lose it.

Luckily, the vet got there quickly and ruled out an allergic reaction. Turns out, mister Theodore was running a temperature of 105 and was panting to try to cool down. The vet gave him a couple shots to bring down his fever and help him recover, then gave me orders to bring him back in tomorrow if he still isn't eating or drinking in case his kidneys get damaged. We've been home for an hour, and Teddy's already walking around a little bit and even ate some food! His breathing has slowed down a little bit and he seems more comfortable. Poor guy was so miserable before.

I'm just really glad I called the vet, and that we have a vet who drove 30 miles into town at 8:00 p.m. to check on my cat. Some people never quite get how much pets are a part of most people's families, but our vets totally get it. And Jordan got to avoid the whole scare! Instead, he just got a hysterical phone call from me when we got back home. The terror of thinking Teddy was going to die took quite a while to recover from. (Confession: I'm still not there. Totally traumatized.)

At least Teddy found some cuddle buddies, pictured above. He spent part of the afternoon napping on my bed with Parp, the purple bird (bird?) Jordan got me when I had surgery, and Nick Carter, the stuffed duck my best friend got me in middle school. They helped me recover from surgery, and apparently they're now helping Ted recover from a rough day. Thanks, Parp and Nick Carter.

Moments of Self-Care

2013-03-17T14:42:00.000-06:00

During the busiest times in each semester (like right now), I often forget to take time for myself. Granted, I don't have very much free time at all, but even little things make a difference. So this week, I took a couple 30 minute breaks to explore new interests.

While I was at the grocery store, I picked up some little plants and got some colorful pots for them. When I stayed with my cousin Nic in Boise a few weeks ago, I was in awe of his collection of plants all over his home. It made his apartment feel so cozy, and I immediately knew I wanted the same feel for my home. Since I stay in Pocatello during the week to avoid a two-hour daily commute, I wanted to brighten up my often lonely little place. Plus, as soon as this semester is over, I'll bring them home and make our house even more cozy.

After the busiest couple days I can remember, I found myself sitting in my apartment Wednesday evening, completely unable to relax and stop my mind from running a million miles a minute. So I decided to try something totally new to me: art. To be totally honest, I was horrible at it. I tried to follow some basic DIYs I found on Pinterest, but oh my gosh did I fail! On the plus side, it definitely took my mind off of class because I was way too busy laughing at myself. And I can always paint over the mess I made in the future. :)

Working On: Time Management

2013-03-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

Life, as usual, has been hectic and full of busy schedules recently. I greatly enjoy my classes, love my job, and have fun with my other school commitments. Taking the time to take care of myself as I continue to heal from surgery is a priority as well. On top of all of that, I still need time to hang out with Jordan and stay in touch with friends. So right now, my lifestyle of taking things as they come and working on projects whenever I feel like it just isn't working for me.

Inspiration
I've read some great blog posts recently about women who are either full-time students, entrepreneurs, or both, and how they manage their schedules. The common thread seems to be a strict schedule for themselves.

Their Method vs Mine
These women wake up early in the morning to fit in as much activity as they can in their days.
I wake up as late as I can before class, and sleep in until whenever on the weekend.
These women plan out their day, allotting certain amounts of time to the tasks they need to accomplish.
I go from project to project, only concerned that I get things done by my deadlines.
These women plan out their commitments, tackling projects well in advance if they know they will be busy later.
I find myself with multiple huge projects due at the same time, resulting in very little sleep and a lot of stress.

Trying Something New
Obviously, their way sounds better. So I'm going to spend the next week trying to get myself in a productive routine.

Here's my game plan:
1. Wake up at the same time early each morning.
2. Create a set schedule for study/work/commitments.
3. Go to a coffee shop if I'm not being productive enough at home.
4. Look at the projects I need to complete and plan out when I will do each of them.
5. Stick to my schedule all week!

Follow Along
I'll be updating followers of my progress on Twitter and Instagram, if you're interested in following along. If you have any time management techniques that have worked well for you, I'd love to hear them!

Simple Pasta Recipe

2013-03-04T20:39:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've been leaning toward simple meals. Between recovering from surgery and dealing with midterms, I need all the simplicity I can get. And this pasta is the epitome of that.

To make this, I just cook one serving of spaghetti. While that noodles are cooking, take one roma tomato and a few basil leaves. Dice up the tomato and slice the basil into thin strips. This isn't picture, but finely chop one or two cloves of garlic as well.

Heat a small pan with some olive oil, then toss in the tomato, basil, and garlic. Stir in a bit of salt and pepper as well. I don't like overly-cooked tomatoes, so I only cook this for about 30 seconds (on medium to medium-high heat).

Then just mix your tomato "sauce" with the cooked spaghetti and you've got yourself a delicious pasta! Of course, I usually add some parmesan to mine. This time I added feta, just because I had some extra in my fridge. At any rate, cheese + garlicky pasta is always a hit in my book.

New Southern Sunrise Single + Interview

2013-03-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

I have a musical treat for you today! Remember when I featured Southern Sunrise on a Music Monday post? Well, Shonagh and Arjan have a new single, Brighton, and it's out today! I did a little interview with them that I get to share with you, along with their single.

Southern Sunrise is still a new band, but I already love their sound. It's great for days that I spend indoors, trying new recipes (which I'll share soon!) or studying. This new single is especially great. Shonagh has the dreamiest voice and Brighton features it so well.

How did you meet?
We got introduced through friends and originally met at a Halloween party and then started hanging out more after that.

When and why did you form the band?
We formed the band in April 2012. It started as a uni project but we really liked writing and recording together and so decided to keep it going and take it from there.

How did Southern Sunrise's sound evolve?
We haven't really got a specific sound, it's still early days and we're just writing songs that we like and different artists or bands influence each song, so our 'sound' is constantly changing over time. The thing that makes it our sound is just that it's us performing it.

What are your hopes for the future of Southern Sunrise?
We're really going to try to do a lot more gigs this year, we're also recording songs for our debut EP 'Brighton' at the moment, which is set to be released in June and we're hoping that people are going to enjoy it! Eventually, our main hope is to be able to make a living out of writing and performing our music.

Do you have a pretty good fan base locally?
We have a lot of friends in Brighton who have been really supportive and people who we've met through gigs were really enthusiastic as well. Of course our families are huge fans too! We've also played in Holland quite and bit and so we're getting a bit of a following there too, one guy spoke to us after a gig there and said he'd listened to our song 'Brighton' 10 times before coming to the gig that day. That was really cool, one of the best compliments you can get as a band!

How would you describe your fans?
At the start our fans were mostly just friends and family but our fan base is growing every day. We get messages via Facebook or twitter quite often from people all over the world saying they really like us and our music. They range from younger people who are in to the more pop-y songs, to older fans who really like the country songs we write, and everything in-between.

Southern Sunrise's first EP will be released in June. They released their first single from it today. Enjoy!

A Post-Surgery Update

2013-02-23T17:26:00.001-07:00

Hello family and friends! This is an update about my surgery and health. If reading about medical issues and/or the female reproductive system doesn't sound fun, then please enjoy this video of Taylor Swift and a screaming goat instead.

Yesterday morning was my surgery for endometriosis. Because endometriosis can only be officially diagnosed by a surgical procedure, I was kind of nervous that my doctor wouldn't find any and we'd be back to square one, trying to figure out what was wrong. Thankfully (?) I do have endometriosis.

Quick explanation: the cells that line the uterus are endometrial cells. With endometriosis, those cells move to the outside of the uterus, sometimes fallopian tubes and ovaries, and can spread farther as well. It's painful and can cause scarring. Think menstrual cramps that never go away, coupled with random stabbing pain.

It's both good and bad. At least now we know what was causing my pain. My doctor was able to remove pretty much all of it. He also saw the two fibroids (benign tumors in my uterus) that showed up in the ultrasound, and he saw a teeny third one that was just starting to grow. They aren't harmful, but I think I'll probably have them removed before we start trying to have children way down the road.

The downside is that endometriosis can't ever be cured. The surgery removed it, but it will continue to grow back. It stops during pregnancy, but we're not ready to have kids yet. We don't know how far it spread. The doctor will tell us all of that and work with us on creating a treatment plan at my post-op appointment on Friday. It will probably mean that I'll take some heavy birth control until we are ready to have kids, and then once we're sure we're done having children, I'll need a hysterectomy. Also, this could affect my fertility. Again, we won't know until we meet with the doctor.

So this weekend, I'm just recovering from the surgery. It wasn't too bad. I have 3 small incisions on my lower abdomen, including one in my belly button, which totally grosses me out. I'm on painkillers, so it's mostly a strong achy pain, rather than anything too awful. Jordan is taking good care of me and the kitties are cuddly as always. An awful lot of family and friends have sent me sweet messages over the past few days and I love all of you for it. My darling mama sent me flowers, which Teddy helped me to appreciate.

Jordan bought me a stuffed bird from the hospital gift shop and gave it to me when I woke up from surgery. We'd been joking about this hilarious story for a while and wondering if I was going to be as goofy when I woke up. Thankfully, I think I held it together pretty well. But I named my new stuffed birdie Parp, because nothing is as funny as that story.

Again, thanks for all the sweet messages everyone has sent me. I can't tell you how much I appreciate having such a great support system while I deal with my health issues. I love you all, and I'll continue using my blog to keep family and friends updated. Who knows, I might even blog about other things again too. :)

Valentine's Day Around Here

2013-02-15T00:39:00.002-07:00

Jordan got me not one, but TWO floral arrangements for Valentine's Day! He wins the award for best (and most mustachioed) husband of the year. In order to avoid the holiday craziness, we went out to dinner Wednesday night instead of Thursday. We tried a new-to-us italian restaurant called Pasta & Vino. Obviously, I knew I could get both of my favorite food groups there. Then for the actual holiday, Jordan surprised me with flowers and a very clean house, I made us some spaghetti and garlic bread, and we watched a movie on the couch. It was very low-key and perfect. Two whole homework-free nights with my favorite person.

Also, deciding not to do any work for two nights in a row was probably a terrible idea, but I needed a break. I just skipped a class today to study for a test in my next class. :) And now it's 12:30 and I'm writing an article for work so I can enjoy my weekend in Boise with my cousin without worrying about Saturday deadlines.

Life in general is just hectic right now. Obviously I've been seriously neglecting my blog, but I'm okay with that. I'll post updates when I have the time/energy/something to say, but I'm not going to stress out about pageviews and all that. My blog is a happy little place for me to share my life with friends and family. Of course, I love that anyone other than those folks also cares about my life, so I'm glad about anyone who's still around and reading this. :)

For my friends, family, and amazing readers, here's a quick update:
My surgery for endometriosis was scheduled for last Friday. However, I got my second bout of bronchitis in one month and the surgery was rescheduled. So now it'll be next Friday instead.
School is going well. I've got A's in all my classes so far and my test today seemed like it went well. My classes are still super fun.
Work is also fun! I've been given some article assignments that require more investigating than usual and I'm loving it.
Other than that, I'm off to Boise for the weekend to hang out with my cousin Nic and see a screening of The Linguists, followed by a Q&A session with the linguists in the movie.

Love you all! :)

My Little Twin

2013-02-05T15:47:00.001-07:00

Today I got to facetime with my favorite little person! If you've been reading my blog for quite a while, you might remember my friend Erica's daughter Madalyn from when Jordan and I lived in Wyoming. Now they're in Ohio and we're in Idaho, and I miss them like crazy. But Madalyn hasn't forgotten me like I was worried she would! Instead, when she recently found out she'd have to get glasses, she told Erica she wanted to "pick out ones like Chelle had in Wyoming." And then my heart melted.

So today Erica texted me a picture of Madalyn in her new glasses and I sent back a picture of me with blond hair. Now Madalyn and I are twinsies and it makes both of us incredibly excited.

Then we facetimed and it was the best. Maddy and I played princess and had a dance party. I really wish I had pictures of me dancing like a butterfly in my kitchen while Madalyn giggled in Ohio because it was my happiest moment of 2013.

I really really really miss you, Erica and Madalyn! We need a reunion soon!