A Full Weekend (in Instagrams)

My weekends off are a treasured treat for me. You see, I work for a company that has a seven-days-a-week program, so I work almost every other weekend. This schedule, though certainly not ideal, does afford me some pretty cool benefits. Like having this Monday morning off until noon to read and write. Having random week days off which lead to high productivity on things like housework and laundry and grocery shopping so that my evenings (that I'm not working late of course) are mostly free to do what we like.

But weekends like this past weekend, where we have a whole Saturday together to just drive and explore, to just be. Those are a amazing. And since they don't always happen even monthly when life is busy with events, the rare occasion for them makes them wonderful.

Here's this weekend in photos:

My Grandparents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary. They are in Iowa so I couldn't be there but was there in spirit as they renewed their vows and cut a cake. It was precious (I saw a video!)

Vince and his brother hung and decorated our office shelves...this is temporary.

Some prints for our gallery wall picked up at the Berkley Art Bash. Husband loves them.

We found the (second) largest tree I've ever seen. The homeowner insisted she take a picture of both of us in front of it. 

I made four dozen M&M cookies for V's cousin's graduation party.

I also had the assistance of my sister-in-law Miranda as we baked 8 dozen oatmeal raisin cookies. I didn't take any photos for evidence of how I made a major math miscalculation that resulted in me QUADRUPLING the recipe. But they were delicious and it's always fun to have sister time while baking :)

Sunday we headed to Grand Rapids and had this lovely HUGE hole happen to our tire while on the  interstate. Thank goodness we were able to maintain control. 

Thanks goodness he's super handy (thanks Father-in-Law for making sure he knows how to work on cars!)

We also got to see this cutie and a whole bunch of other family. 

So that was our weekend as seen through our Instagram feeds! What did you do this weekend?

Happier

Can I first acknowledge my failures. I posted nine pretty little posts of the 31 that I was supposed to for Every Day in May. FAIL. I was in such denial about this that I did not even read any of Jenni's posts after I bailed on it, I just let them build up in my reader and then on June 1st "marked all as read" because facing them was hurting my ego. Oh well. I tried, I got almost 1/3 of the way in.

But really, I just got busy with life, and my anxiety had increased as I had mentioned in this post, so I stopped. No shame in that. Those anxiety times are exciting times. I gained yet another sister (one of the best things of marriage is the ever growing family). And she made the most gorgeous bride ever. Check out this picture that my very talented sister(in-law, but who's counting?), Michelle, took of Arianna. Stunning, right?

So with the wedding being busy, family being in town, trying to maintain the carefully cultivated mess that is our apartment while also still working our normal full-time 9-5 (psh, I wish I worked regular hours)--life got crazy.

In any case, I feel rested and happier after some actual "weekend" days on Monday and Tuesday this week. And after yesterday's Big Idea I have spent my morning off today sipping on some Earl Grey and reading to my hearts content about things to fill in my Big Idea with several smaller ideas.

And though my idea yesterday isn't really based on the big "H" word Happy, that's what I've been reading about today. First I was reading a little about The Third Metric conference hosted by Arianna Huffington yesterday, which you should check out because there is some good stuff there, then I went back to one of my favorite bloggers Aidan at Ivy League Insecurities and dug through some of her archives on being happier, not Happy. Seriously, check out this post, You Are Not Happy, and this one, I Will Be Happier in Twelve Weeks. She's great, and she makes me think. And I like that.

In fact, I miss THINKING. "Oh, Heather doesn't think anymore," that's what you're thinking now. No, of course I think. But since I am not in school anymore, I don't have that constant intellectual challenge unless I seek it out myself.

And that makes me wonder: at this age, this post-grad school-we are all in new jobs-slowly spreading across this county-taking on new roles-being adults life that my friends and I live in now how do we make sure that we continue to grow? How do we make sure that we are enriching our minds and our knowledge base? 

And even more, how do we stay connected? How do we grow our connections?

And through it all, are we living our lives to be happier?

The Big Ideas

Do you ever get those Big Ideas.

They seer into your brain in an instant, your mind chasing down all of the possibilities and potential for how to make it come alive.

Your belly is fire-filled with excitement and anticipation. 

Eagerness for the idea grows and you want to shout it from the rooftops.

But a bigger part of you wants to savor this feeling, protect it inside of your mind and heart alone so you can foster it without the second guessing nature that comes with speaking our dreams aloud to others.

These are good, no great, moments.

Its been a while since I had one. Until now. Just minutes ago.

Its fresh and fun. Thrilling even.

I'm savoring this Big Idea until I can flesh it out with details. And then I will share.

But for now, I had to come here and jot down this feeling.  Just let someone know that my heart is racing fast and my mind is running wild.

Do you have these experiences?  What Big Ideas have you had lately?

5.15 day in the life

It is May 15th. I last blogged on May 10th. Failed at EVERY day in May. But 10 days was a good run and well, why waste those. I'm jumping back on the wagon and here's your super exciting look into my day:

7:30: Vince's alarm wakes me, he snoozes, we go back to sleep
8:00: Alarm goes off again, we should get up. Lazily get ourselves together for work.
9:45: Arrive at work, drive clients around and do things. Get Starbucks along the way, the (female) barista tells me my dress is the prettiest she's ever seen.
12:15: Lunch. AKA spend time in InDesign trying to figure out the program.
1:30: Back to work, more shuttling of clients, nothing exciting here today. Help a client prepare taco salad for dinner then off early, yay for short days!
5:00: Home. Back at InDesign. Opened all the windows because it's a sauna up in here. Watch some Revenge because I'm addicted.
6:30: Husband is home from work, we're eating leftovers. Spend some time loafing.
8:00: Back to InDesign. Decide to re-join Every Day in May. So here I am.

I'll probably watch at least one more episode of Revenge, loaf a little more, and then crash. Maybe on the couch. Don't judge me.

This month I am participating in Every Day in May, a blogging challenge hosted by Jenni @ Story of My Life. 

5.10 (on 5.11) most embarrassing moment

These are my witnesses to this tale.

To pick just one moment that I have made a fool of myself is very, very difficult. First, I am very clumsy, second, I have a faulty filter and say what I think 99% of the time. But alas, I will tell but one tale that is not totally mortifying but is quite funny.

In 2008 I moved to Michigan to and embarked not just upon Graduate Education, but also Hall Directorhood (it's my blog, I can make up words if I want to!). As part of this experience I joined team of a handful of other new grad students and we were thrown together in a week long training. We covered the basics but also were encouraged to get to know each other personally as Residence Life is a beast like none other and you have to work together very well and it is easier to function as a team when you trust the people you work with.

On about day two of knowing these fine new friends we were walking from lunch to one of the other HD's apartments to grab something. We all are looking classy, dressed up in our business professional clothes as we were to be meeting with some University officials that day.

Here's me, in a cute little dress and heels of the low variety. Walking along the sidewalk my heel strikes on the edge of the concrete and the tumble begins. I take a couple of faltering steps, everyone gasps and reaches out, relaxes as they think I catch my balance. A couple larger and even more faltering steps and everyone freezes in panic unable to help the inevitable. Finally I swan dive into the grass beneath a tree. All the while all I can think is "please, God, don't let this dress go over my head so they can see my butt, I'm only wearing a thong!"

No one knows what to do. They've known me for such a short time they do not yet know of my two left feet.

I roll over laugh. Dust myself off as everyone else finally laugh and help me up. One other HD notices not only did I scuff myself up a bit, but also I had broken my dang shoe.

So embarrassing. But, they learned a lot about me in that one dramatic fall to the ground. That I could and would get up when I'm down, usually laughing as I do it.

This month I am participating in Every Day in May, a blogging challenge hosted by Jenni @ Story of My Life. 

5.9 moment of my day (and my anxiety)

Today was a busy day of driving around for work with nothing especially exciting.  On top of that I spent a large part of my afternoon with anxiety. Not anything concerning but I felt uncomfortable.

I won't get into all of the details but after talking with a friend I think the anxiety stems from a combination of several factors and is heightened by my dieting.

You see, I'm a hedonic eater, an emotional eater. My brain thinks that I will feel better by bingeing on some shitty food when I'm feeling stressed, sad, or even very happy. And truth be told it often worked or at least it wad satisfying.

Today my emotional eating consisted of only two munchkins (doughnut holes). TWO. Hardly satisfying to my desire to self medicate with pastries. But it was satisfying to have been able to exert control over what went in my mouth.

But, alas, I still felt uncomfortable.  Because I wanted to binge. Because I had feelings and eating is an easy way to fix them.

I chose control. And I am proud of that. But. Stomach butterflies/queasiness,amped up heart rate, and sweaty palms. Just uncomfortable.

And that's okay.  Discomfort can mean growth, today it does.

But my happy moment is now. My husband took me out to dinner (our 6 month wedding anniversary is tomorrow, how has it been 1/2 a year already?) and now we are on the couch. Watching Arrow. I'm blogging then reading The Great Gatsby. Then watching Grey's Anatomy.

Stress free evening. I may even have a glass of wine.

This month I am participating in Every Day in May, a blogging challenge hosted by Jenni @ Story of My Life.

5.8 dear heather (advice)

As a trained counselor I know that it is best not to lend advice to others but rather ask open ended questions to allow the other person to come to their owb conclusion. 

Buuuuutttt. This is my blog, not your therapist's office.

Soy advice to you is to try a little bit of everything.  I love trying new things, specifically projects.  I like to try new books. I suggest trying things, but if you get bored with it, quit it.

Now, I do suggest this primarily for hobbies. But I did do this with majors in college, too. If you count my initial declaration of major I had 5 majors in 4 yeads of college.

I do not suggest this for jobs. Unless it is extremely boring (or bad for some other legit reason) I suggest sticking the position out and looking for what yoy can learn from. At least a year.

But for the fun stuff, dabble.

This month I am participating in Every Day in May, a blogging challenge hosted by Jenni @ Story of My Life.