Disappearing Act

Hello?....

....Is anybody out there?....

So, I have to apologize for disappearing for, oh, FOUR MONTHS.

Yikes.

Although I doubt anyone still reads this blog, as there isn't much to read lately, I wanted to come back and give an update on my life.

It's been BUSY. Really, super, incredibly busy.

This winter in Baltimore has been horrible. It snowed on April 15th. Can we just take a moment of silence???

I got a new job at work (somewhat of a promotion) that has me simultaneously thanking my lucky stars and pulling my hair out with stress all at the same time!

Wedding planning quite honestly came to a halt the past month or two--Sean & I have been hit with some HUGE unexpected costs (let's just say CAR, medical bills, wedding expenses, things at our house breaking, etc) and we have been a little "down" lately. We really wanted to be able to move into a new house before our wedding--which is less than 6 months away, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN OMG--but it is looking more and more like that isn't going to be feasible.

Also, my brother is currently deployed...again. He may not be back in time for the wedding, which has me even more upset, on top of the fact that I worry about his safety over there every day.

Our secret handshake, the night before he left 

But, along with the bad comes the good. I wake up every day next to my best friend who also happens to be a huge hunk, so I can't complain. I have a loving and caring family, and wonderful friends. In fact, my best friend/maid of honor is PREGNANT!! She is having a little one in July (sex is a surprise!) and I couldn't be more excited for her and her husband.

We have some exciting events coming up: weddings, baby showers, weekend festivals, and Orioles games! We got season tickets this year with my parents, and it has been awesome!

Also, we booked our honeymoon!!!

We are heading to MAUI, HAWAII!!! 

We also have a one-night layover in Seattle, so if anyone has recommendations for either location, let us know :)

And now, I'll leave you with some engagement photos my friend from high school took for us for free, which was so sweet of her:

I think she did a great job. Don't you?

In my next post: A sangria review, just in time for Spring!

Slow Down!

It’s been an insanely long time since I dropped in.

Life is funny like that. I’m so busy living my life that I don’t have time to share my life on this blog. I know no one reads it. But I do enjoy going back and reading my old posts. So, I am going to *try* to post more often.

Although, I doubt I’ll be too successful with my job, Master’s Degree, wedding planning  (less than 10 months to go and SO MUCH TO DO – eeeek!), and social events always going on. But, I am going to at least try.

I was thinking recently about time. The older I get, the faster time seems to rush by, and the more I want to press the "pause" button. Sean turned 28 a couple weeks ago, and I was reminiscing on the fact that when we met, I was 22 – about to be 23 – and he was 25, which is the age I am now.

In a few short years, I have grown so very much. And it’s not just about the big “life step” of getting engaged this year. It’s about way more than that. In the last 3 or so years, I have graduated undergrad, am on my 3^rd “real world” job, started paying ALL of my bills, bought my first new car (that happened about a month ago and is a story for another day…), moved 3 times, started grad school, and have seen 2 beautiful nieces come into this world…and now one of them is talking and walking and running and playing.

Life is so very, very fast. I know that lately, I have been stressed. Worried about things at work, wedding to-dos, what to buy everyone for Christmas, how I’m going to afford my car payments, looking for houses with Sean and realizing we aren't even close to having enough saved up….I need to just stop. Pause. Reflect. Live. Enjoy.

I’m so busy living life that I’m not even present in it. Has anyone else ever felt this way? I picture my wedding day, and then I picture it being over in the blink of an eye, and I don’t want that to happen. I want to wake up that morning, and just…take a few moments. Alone. I want to walk SLOWLY down that aisle, staring into the face of the man I love, and just pause, and take in his smile, and the way his eyes get green when he is teary-eyed, and etch that moment into my brain for the rest of my life.

This Christmas, I want to sit on the couch and stare at the Christmas tree, snow falling softly outside, and just enjoy those little moments. Christmas is a week from today, and I feel like I’ve been so busy going to holiday parties and shopping for gifts and working 45 hours a week that I haven’t actually enjoyed Christmas itself. It's not about the gifts, yet every year I catch myself obsessing over giving every single person on my list (and it's a looong list) the "perfect" gift. But in reality, the greatest gift of all is life, and love, and family. Without that, we are nothing.

I'm not really sure what the purpose of this post is, other than I realize I need to slow down a little. 

I have a work party today, a birthday party tomorrow, a gift exchange Friday, and another birthday party Saturday…my plan for this Sunday is to relax. To do nothing but enjoy life. No plans. Maybe lounge on the couch with a book. Play a board game with Sean. Just be present and have fun.

The Christmas wrapping can wait. The grocery shopping can wait. The laundry can wait. The wedding to-dos can wait. It can all wait for one more day.

I’ll check in on Monday and let you know how it goes!

Happy Holidays, to anyone who actually reads this, and enjoy this photo of last week's snow in Baltimore J

Christmas Recap

Merry (3 days after) Christmas, everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday filled with love, peace, and joy. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you still are filled with love, peace, and joy.

At first, I wasn't even going to do a holiday recap. That's all I find in my blog feed the week following Christmas each year, and I typically roll my eyes, scroll through other bloggers' photos quickly, or just skip the posts altogether. It has always seemed sort of self-indulgent to me. But then I thought, you know what? This is MY blog. This is a way for me to document MY life. And even if no one else in blogland cares what I did on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I want to be able to look back on this year, last year, and the year before that, and reminisce.

So, skip this post if you don't care ;-)

Without further adieu....

Christmas this year was broken into a few different days. Since Sean and I started dating, it's been a struggle trying to figure out how to see all of our family and friends during Christmas and New Year's. I am learning that it just isn't possible to make everyone happy, but we can try our darndest.

On Saturday, December 22nd, Sean and I spontaneously invited my parents over for dinner, drinks, and gifts. We realized that we wouldn't have time to exchange gifts with them Christmas Eve like we did last year, so we changed it up a bit. I didn't mind getting my presents a few days early ;) I quickly threw together a beef stew in the crock pot, and we had a lovely evening.

I won't bore you by bragging about all the gifts I received from my parents, but let me just say I was blown away. Along with the traditional gifts like a calendar and some clothes, I got a few surprises as well. The gem of the evening:

That, my friends, is a Terrell Suggs signed football....my parents were at a Charity Auction, know I love T. Sizzle (I am seen sporting his jersey here), and my mom ended up in an intense bidding war with a woman--and boy, am I glad she won! I was blown away and it is already proudly displayed in my home.

My parents, Sean, and I had a great evening, and it was a wonderful way to kick off the Christmas weekend.

The next day, Sean and I realized we had a LivingSocial deal that needed to be used before it expired! So, into Baltimore City we went to Leinenkugel's Beer Garden, a really cool bar with great appetizers, and of course, an overwhelming array of beers.

Sean and I shared a beer flight and a dip trio, which was just lovely.

After Leinenkugel, Sean and I headed to a party at his aunt's house. It was my first time meeting his Dad's side of the family, so I was too busy meeting people to snap any pictures. We had a great time, though, drinking and eating and watching the Ravens beat the Giants :-)

The next day was Christmas Eve, which is absolutely my favorite day of the year--all the anticipation and excitement. Both of us had (separate) last-minute stocking stuffers and gifts to buy before heading to my mom and dad's, so we both got those done in the morning. And it was good that we did, because by about 4:00 pm, the scene out the window looked like this:

Sean and I trekked to my parents' house, a trip the usually takes 45 minutes...and it took us an hour and a half. It was pretty scary, but totally worth it for some family time:

cousins

my mom loves to photobomb

my man and I

Patron shots! We know how to party!

The Christmas Eve party also included a Yankee Gift Swap (White Elephant Gift Exchange), and I ended up with a pretty awesome gift:

Yep. That's a Justin Bieber singing toothbrush AND a Lady Gaga singing toothbrush, along with a Disaronno gift set! Saweeet. I am already loving Biebs singing to me every day.

Once Sean and I got home, it was almost 1:00 am, so we crashed quickly...except that I could NOT sleep and was like a little kid, eager for morning so I could race out to the living room and open my presents.

We finally got out of bed at 8:30am and exchanged gifts, just the two of us, which was lovely. We spoiled each other rotten this year...it's tough to say what my favorite gift was, but these are up there on the list:

A gift certificate to my favorite hair salon, and a Spa Day complete with massage and facial!!!

And here is a shot of some of my gifts....yes, that is a bottle of Patron and 5 mini liquor bottles. My man knows the way to my heart ;-)

Sean enjoyed his gifts, too, of course. I gave him a vintage map of Maryland in a unique frame, some clothes, a Home Depot gift card, and some other odds and ends. All in all, it was a fantastic holiday for both of us.

Then, in the afternoon, we went to spend time with Sean's mom, brother, and brother's girlfriend. We exchanged more gifts, and then hung out before going home to snuggle under our new Ravens blanket (courtesy of Sean's mom) and play Scrabble.

Christmas this year was fantastic, and I am so thankful for everyone in my life who made it possible.

How was your Christmas?

Holiday Cheer

The stockings are hung...

The tree is decorated...

The nativity is set up...

And there are random splashes of Christmas cheer throughout...

One more work day stands between me and a full week+ off work!

I am ready to enjoy the Christmas and New Year's holidays with those I love.

See you in 2012 

Snapshots from the Weekend

...How was your weekend?

Any swoon-worthy Valentine's Day plans?

take one, pass it along...

*stolen from this lovely lady

Have a great week!

Happy July...5th?

Ok, ok, so I'm a day late.

Maybe that's 'cause I was soakin' up the sun while kayaking, jetskiing, boating, tubing, drinking, swimming, and eating with this lovely (and slightly rowdy) group of friends:

Ahhh, what a lovely weekend it was.

Now, it's back to the daily grind.

Have a great week!

P.S. Here are a few photos from my birthday celebration, which included dinner at the harbor followed by drinks at the bar with my roomie:

What Keeps Me Going at Work

As you all probably know by now, I recently started a new full-time job as a Drug & Alcohol Rehabilitation Counselor at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. We are a 7-day-a-week clinic working with patients with severe opiate addictions. As you can imagine, most of my days end up being exhausting, fast-paced, and overwhelming. With my clientele, no two days are alike, and it can be an emotional roller coaster. However, I am thoroughly enjoying my position thus far, as most of the patients and staff I work with are truly extraordinary human beings. I leave work each day feeling like I have done something worthwhile, which makes me feel very lucky and blessed to have found such a great career so soon after college.

That being said, there are still many moments (and hours...and days...) where I am so stressed and frazzled I want to pull my hair out!

But there are a few things that have been keeping me going, even on the craziest of days......

America, and Coco, runs on Dunkin.

My workspace can get sort of cluttered, but at least I can sneak onto my blog reader from time to time...

...and I have some pretty (fake) flowers to brighten my days.

I try to wear cute outfits so I at least look good, even if I feel exhausted:

And my patients and I can all benefit from a little inspiration...

At the end of the day, before I head home, I always press this nifty little button...

...and then I have one of these:

(Ok, ok, so I wait until I get home for that last one, but still).

So there you have it. It's the little things (like staff meeting pizza parties or birthday luncheons) that get me through my hectic days.

Do you enjoy your job?

What gets you through your workdays?

A Photo Tour of My New Home

As promised, here are a few photos I snapped of my new townhome in Baltimore. I am renting from a girl named Amanda who is also my roommate. She is 24 and has a beagle named Bailey, whom I have inherited. I only just moved in, but I already feel right at home.

me in front of the front door!

living room

our awesome, spacious kitchen

my room--LOVING the exposed brick! that door also opens to a pretty large private balcony!

I get my own bathroom! It has a skylight!

Bailey, Amanda's doggie :-)

So, I have one week to settle into my new atmosphere and explore the city, especially the Canton neighborhood, before my full-time counseling position begins on March 28th! What a whirlwind my life has been! This is proof that hard work and patience and perseverance really do pay off, in recovery and in life. I have worked very hard to get where I am. A few weeks ago, I was afraid I'd be living at home forever and would never get a "real" job. Now, I am living independently and am about to start my career!

**********

Oh yeah, and things with The Man are going SUPER well. He drove more than an hour last night after he had worked all day, just to come see my new place in Baltimore and to hang out with me. He stayed the night, but it honestly was innocent (besides like, passionate making out haha). It was adorable. We talked and had a couple beers and stayed up til 4am. Then this morning, we woke up at 9 and laid in bed talking and cuddling for 2 more hours before we finally got out of bed and he headed home because he had to work.

I really like this guy. A lot. And I know I've said stuff like this before in the past, but it honestly feels different this time. This guy is older, so he's more mature, respectful, and intelligent than other guys I've dated. I really hope things work out between us because I think it could potentially be something wonderful.

Cross your fingers for me!

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I'm off to explore my new city! Have a wonderful Sunday and a great start to your week tomorrow...and HAPPY SPRING!