general conference swagger

This weekend was full of general conference (my favorite).

We spent Sunday at my family's house. Everyone brought friends, and we all squished in the basement, and Krysti fed us gigantic meals every 3 hours, and is there really any better way to do it?

{In other news, I'm way jealous of my little brother's Mickey Mouse watch. What kind of 10-year-old has that kind of swag?}

Happy Monday!

I'm off to a 3-day week and then FALL BREAK!

What are you up to this week?

And if you watched conference, wasn't it the best?

I should become a fashion blogger

I mean, seriously.

Look at this.

photo cred: the amazing Natalie

#recessduty

In other news...

+ done with parent teacher conferences! And they were fun.

+ this is what I'm doing this weekend

+ happy fall from my class :)

What are you doing this weekend?

Anyone conferencing it up with me?

Friday's High Fives

High five for Friday.

High five for husbands who study for the gre. Our kitchen table is covered with organized piles of flashcards. He is going to rock that thing.

High five for aunts that come see your classroom, and for bright colored paper and printouts and lesson plans that are finally finished.

High five for professional clothes, and for casual Friday.

High five for Saturday, and the promise of date night.

High five for Sam (again), who runs to the grocery store for me late at night.

High five for meeting my students on Monday!!

High five for packages and hand-written letters.

High five for not being able to sleep, but in a good, excited way, not a stressed and terrified way.

High five for Friday!

What's your high five for the day?

P.S. Awesome giveaway coming next week :)

P.P.S. I wrote about making the most of the first few months of marriage here and my favorite things about summer here.

the gloriousness of having nothing to do

This Saturday has been glorious.

Nothing to do, nowhere to go.

After a run this morning and a delightful bloggers lunch, I read my book and played my piano.

Sam and I will keep eating and reading and watching movies

and we'll probably take another blurry picture or two before the evening's out

but mostly, we'll dedicate our night to being full-time loungers and relaxers.

~

I love being busy, but isn't it glorious when you have nothing to do?

clay-sculpting and rooftop concerts

one rooftop concert

+

one clay-sculpting double date

+ 

a pool party

+

fresh bell peppers and my little brother's baked alaska

+

wildflowers on my kitchen table

= yes please

at the lovenest, we like our weekends simple, almost-free, and fun.

and now i'm off to a 3-day work training. it's the next step in becoming a real-life teacher. 

how was your weekend?

Snowy weekends are for

surprise birthday parties

root beer floats

puppies

cuddles

and performances on a homemade stage.

And now I'm fighting the urge to barricade myself in bed until the weather gets warmer again.


P.S. Entering this giveaway.

the running itch

I've had a serious case of the running itch these days. I want to run. I hurry dinner to catch the last sunlight of the day. I make new running playlists. I map out routes on google earth. I write down race registration dates.

Yup, I'm getting the running itch again.

{images via}

Maybe it's the warm weather.

Maybe it's because I keep thinking about that grieving winter, when I'd run and run and run away from everything. I'd go until I couldn't breathe and my lungs seared and my muscles were on fire and I'd just cry there in that green Oregon mist because no amount of physical pain could take away the pain I felt inside. Almost every day, I would run. That's when running became therapeutic for me, and I think I'm addicted.

I'm up for another race this year. 

Does anyone else have the running itch? 

P.S. My weekend was the best kind of weekends - filled with my favorite people. Old friends, new friends, birthday parties, and a family dinner made it so so great. That and some blessed happy valley sunshine. Bless that sunshine to the bottom of its soul.

If you were me

You'd neglect to bring your real camera ANYWHERE this whole weekend. So you'd resort to your crappy camera phone pics.


This weekend, you'd also

go mini golfing with a psychedelic blacklight shark

Split a grasshopper shake at JCW's

Admire cute decorations

Go to a friend's church activity, and crack up at people who are obsessed with couponing. Couponing, people. Like, as their main hobby.

Sit fourth row at the St. Mary's game

Take a Sunday walk

And go to this handsome young man's birthday party.

And then, if you were me, filling out my planner like you do every Sunday night, you'd realize you're in for the busiest week of the year so far. So, being the dutiful wife that you are, you'd give your husband a kiss, tell him it's been good to know him, and that you'll see him next week. Sayonara, sweet one. Catch you on the flip side. Hasta luego. And other multicultural sayings.


But that's just if you were me. 


If you were you, what would your weekend have looked like? What would your week look like? Any run-ins with psychedelic sharks?

weekend love

Sometimes after a week of stress and exhaustion and observations, you need a weekend exactly like mine. I got to relax and be with Sam, which was just what the doctor ordered.

On Friday I experimented with a yummy new recipe (usually weekends are the only time I have to get creative with my cooking). It was lemon garlic spaghetti - YUM. Recipe to follow.

Then, Sam and I made a quick stop at the basketball exhibition game. After that, we headed over to our favorite cupcake shop. It was the anniversary of our first official date (we have two first official dates, and we celebrate them both. It's fine. The more the merrier, right?). Sam decided to recreate that date. We sat at the same table, ordered the same mint hot chocolate {first one of the season baby!} and even peeled off the stickers and stuck them on each other's shirts like we did on our first date. 

Plus, while we were there, we ran into my dear old roommate and her cute new boyfriend.

Then, unlike our first date, we came home and snuggled and watched Modern Family together. It was definitely an improvement over the thanks-goodnight-hug-awkwardly fumble for your keys door scene that happened on our first date :)

Saturday involved taking a math test, getting in a few hours of work, going to campus with a shameless disregard for my own physical appearance {glasses and a sweatshirt? what else is there?}, and going on a run with this little ball of fluff.

Afterwards was date night at the temple and daylight savings {was anybody else inordinately excited for daylight savings this year??}.

Sunday has been early morning snuggles, getting the sleep that I desperately needed, church, and another new recipe. Plus it's our three-month anniversary :)

Our single friends are coming over soon for farkle and cookies, and then we're making a quick stop at a birthday party.

I guess nothing crazy or life-changing or super exciting happened this weekend. It was slow, and relaxing, and happy, and just what I needed this weekend. Three cheers for weekends.

How was yours?