Comfort

All around me people are struggling
This crazy life they just keep on juggling
It pains me to see
I pray that He will set them free

Let me be a comfort
Let me be a friend
May their lives be filled with blessings
Until the very end

Adventure

In May we went camping with Tyler's sister, Tara, and her fiance, Lane. It was a lot of fun, an adventure from the start. We took some crazy roads in the mountains and found some water down below. It was awesome camping near a stream, such a beautiful and peaceful setting. We went on a hike, played games, ate, and slept. It was a great "kickoff" camping trip!

My soul sings

I blogged the lyrics of this song back in

2009. Here I am again, 1:30 in the

morning, listening to the song over and

over on YouTube. To be honest, I am not

the kind of person to associate songs and

events, etc. Some people have a song for

everything, every feeling, every event.

Not me. I have a few that I absolutely

love, but this one is different. I can

still remember singing it at church in 2009

and wanting to stand, smiling at God, for

hours. Something about it. I can't really

explain it, but you should check it out here.

I would love to hear what some of your songs

are that make you feel this way, I hope you

have one!

Summa time

Yes, it is summer! You wouldn't know it by looking outside or by watching me drive to and from class each day....regardless, it is summer.

In May, Tyler started a new job at a brand new Detox center in Boise. He is working nights, but we are getting used to it and adjusting nicely. In fact, although we have less time together, the time we do have is very nice. We make sure we are doing something fun together any chance we get.

We have a new member of the family...Norah. She is an 11 month old St. Bernard/Lab Mix. She is such a sweetheart. We totally lucked out, we adopted her from the shelter, so she could have been quite the handful. She is very sweet and has only misbehaved when company comes over, and it is nothing bad, she just loses her mind for a minute.

I started serving at Buffalo Wing Wings, and then found out that I got an internship with JR Simplot Company. WHOOHOO! So I will only serve on Saturdays and my internship is Monday - Friday until graduation in December. God is really teaching me that His plans sometimes differ from mine. I am okay with that, I am confident that his plans are better than mine.

I just finished 1 of 3 summer classes and my final 2 summer classes start on Monday. Then this fall I only have 4 classes until I graduate with a degree in Accounting and a degree in Finance.

We are going to Spokane two times this month. Once for my cousins wedding, and another time for Hoopfest. I am exciting for the wedding because this will be my first time back with all of the Blaine's...except for my wedding, but that doesn't really count.

Also, I am playing on a co-ed team at Hoopfest. Should be interesting, that's all I can say. I am pumped!

I hope anyone (if anyone is reading) reading this post is having a blessed summer!

Engaged!

Yup, three years ago today! He tried to propose on Feb 13th, but I insisted on doing homework, he didn't want to propose on V-day (too predictable) and so he proposed at game night on Feb 15th with some of our closest friends! What a night, what a life!!!

Little Projects

January has been full of organizing, and little projects on the fly. I wanted to make the most of my time off from school and now I also have Mondays school free until 6:00pm so I can get a fewmore chores and projects done on Mondays. Here are some of my projects from January with helpful hints if you like them...

For Christmas we used some gift cards and other generous gift money from family to buy this TV. Well, we didn't want to break the budget on a stand and accessories, so everything you see except for the tv was already in our home. The TV stand is a bookshelf that was ugly wood, it was in my kitchen before. I slapped on some paint that I had and I love how it turned out. The little white table was also "blonde" wood so I painted it up and put a new stainless steel handle on it. I am very happy with our new thrifty TV display.

BEFORE

AFTER

Never-mind the horrible interior of our cupboards, the kitchen remodel hasn't happened yet. I am just thankful that I found these white bins buried by the mess. My next goal is to use all of those cleaning products up so that I can make my own and only have one or two safe cleaners. I am also a little OCD about the white containers, I buy these because Walmart has had them for years so all of the organizing containers match throughout my house. Weird, I know, I only use white hangers too.

Homemade laundry soap is amazing! I have to give credit to Jenae, check out her amazing blog at www.littlehomeinthecity.blogspot.com. She has made some awesome things! Anyway, I am hooked on homemade laundry soap. This two gallon container lasts at least 4 months and is way cheaper than any detergent on store shelves. It is also faster to make than a trip to the store. Tyler helped me make this batch, it was fun to do together!

This is my version of "dryer sheets." It is a cap full of fabric softener and the rest is water. I spray it on the clothes before I start the dryer. So much cheaper than dryer sheets and less waste too!

My jewelry used to be in the bathroom, but recently I re-did our closets and dresser storage and I had a few extra drawers. After looking at some of my favorite blogs I noticed quite a few of my favorite designers had great jewelry storage in their bedrooms. So, the necklace holder is actually a hand towel holder. And the ice cube trays are in the top drawer of the same dresser. One pair of earrings per spot and watches in the white basket. The boxes around the sides are studs and special jewelry that I keep in the box. I love having my jewelry in my dresser like this. It makes picking it out so much fun and so easy to keep track of everything. No more tangled messes for me!

Greatest day!

Tyler and I woke up at 11:00am, yes, 11:00am on Saturday. We spent the night at his parents house but everyone else took of early for a weekend in Yakima. We stayed behind in Idaho and decided to have a lazy day.

After waking Tyler read a book in front of the fire for a while as I continued to lay in bed "resting." From there we made a bed of blankets and pillows on the living room floor and watched "P.S. I love you." It was so fun to just be close and enjoy a movie, and good call to put Gerard Butler in the movie because Tyler willingly watches since he was "King Leonidas" in the movie "300."

Then we cleaned up his parents house a bit and headed back home. Tyler took the dogs to the lake while I showered and cleaned our house a bit. Then we headed to Bed, Bath, and Beyond for some kitchen must haves. Meanwhile, we got a call from a good friend and his wife that they were in town from LaGrand. We met at Costco to eat and then headed to ColdStone for ice cream.

Since parting from our wonderful friends and ice cream I have puttered around the kitchen, making room for my new waffle iron from my mother-in-law and Tyler has watched a football game and played his new video game (yes I know, videogame, but everyone needs their vice. Mine are probably trashy shows on ABC).

I also did some editing on PhotoShop and watched a few tutorials for some new tricks. What fun! What a wonderful day, no complaints from Tyler or myself, just a wonderful lazy day between lovers!

Holiday blues

I don't want the title of this post to concern anyone. Christmas is amazing, wonderful, and one of my favorite times of the year. Even with all of these good feelings about Christmas, the holidays are a hard time for me. I think I blogged about this last year too, but here it is again, making me an emotional cookie baking crazy lady!

There isn't really one thing that makes me feel sad around Christmas, but just the absence of secure/fond memories. I haven't had a Christmas with both parents since 8th grade and because of this I don't really have any traditions that I hold near and dear to my heart. Yeah, I can remember some of the things we did when I was younger, but sometimes they are hard to remember without remembering the later years.

My heart often feels "hurt" during the holidays, I don't know how to explain it. It is a literal, tear-jerking, pain.

So how do I get past this? I'm not really sure. I know that I obviously need to pray about it, year round! It is only God who can bring security during the holidays, not Tyler or my own will.

How sweet it is....

to be loved by Tyler!

As you read below, last week was an important week. I had three interviews for audit internships with top accounting firms. About a month ago my mom bought me my first suit...a pinned striped black skirted suit. I planned to break out the suit for the interviews, and what is a suit without heels? I usually park about a 12 minute walk from campus...and the interview site was about a 10 minute walk from the buildings I am in on campus. So I was concerned about all of the walking. And no, wearing tennis shoes to walk around in with my suit was NOT an option.

Tyler had the day off so he drove me to campus, dropped me off, and picked me up at the end of the day. Campus is a 25 minute drive from our house on a good day. I realize more and more that it is the little things that Tyler does to show love. He didn't have to drive me in, he could have told me to stop being such a girl and wear different shoes...but he didn't! What a sweet man.

Later in the week he told me that he was trying to do anything to calm my nerves and make the week go smoothly. Wow, to put my needs ahead of his own for a week without me thinking about him much at all. How sweet it is to be loved by him...

I was selected for second round interviews with two of the firms. I have one in Boise on Tuesday and I fly to Spokane on Wednesday for a Thursday interview. I am thankful to the Lord for giving me the opportunity to interview...what a blessing!

1/2 marathon, 10 days away!

So I have always been a runner, but never worked too hard at it or enjoyed it or kept with it on my own accord. It has always been an easy way to stay in shape. Did you know to start burning fat you can run for 15 minutes or walk for 45 minutes. No thank you to walking for 45 minutes to just start burning fat. Ugh! Not that fat burning is a big concern, but why would I do anything for 45 minutes that I could do in 15?

My best friend, Hannah, lives in Portland and I haven't seen her since the early part of the year. So in an effort to get her to come to Idaho I decided I would see if she would run a half marathon with me. Hannah is a personal trainer and actually enjoys this type of thing. Haha, so needless to say, I didn't have to do much convincing and she was already planning on coming over the same weekend.

Let the training begin, 10 weeks ago. I started running and have averaged 4-5 runs per week. Until this week, which I will blame on school and lazyness, and will title "tapering." Haha! It has been pretty fun, at week four I wanted to give up. Hannah decided we needed to email our workouts to each other. From then on, fear fueled my ambition. Hannah was running her miles much faster than I was. Yikes! So I have worked harder and brought my times down.

I ran my long runs with a friend here in Idaho, and what a blessing that was. It has been fun spending more time with Jenny and we even went on a double date to Olive Garden with the husbands. Every other run, except for one, has been by myself.

Anyway, this is a long post to say, I am excited. It is going to be a lot of fun, and I am interested to see how I race compared to my long runs, training, etc. Most of all, I am so pumped to have Hannah all to myself for 13.1 miles. Hopefully I won't be sucking too much air to chat with her!