Friday's Letters

Dear Finals, You're over tomorrow. Praise the Lord. I'm mostly done! That's all I have to say!

Dear Work, Thank you for not being a struggle in my life. You aren't another thing I have to get through. You're a pleasure.

Professor Cat guards the tasty Snack!

Dear Dental Assisting Program, I'm so stoked. You have no clue. I'm so excited to begin! I'm excited for my uniform, for my new tools, even to be waking up so early! I'm so excitedddselleeelskjd!!

Dear Carpet Shampooer, why are you broken? Now my carpet is soaked, but not clean. How do you expect me to be satisfied with these results?? My feet are so cold now. Seriously?

Dear Jane Austen, Why are you novels just so damn good? I can't get over it. I love the books, I love the movies. All of it.

Dear Portland, I'll be seeing you this weekend. I'm excited to start my one week of summer! But you can only happen if......

Dear Paycheck, Please arrive faster. Please.

The BEST day!

Doctor Thunder's Rolling In

Remember all the beautiful photos of the sunshine and rainbows I blogged about the last few weeks? Well.... Washington took them all back. It has been cloudy and cold. For several weeks I wore nothing but sundresses. I went barefoot and played in the sun everyday. Lately, I've been wearing jeans and boots. Its too windy to even consider wearing a skirt and too muggy to try to get out a cardigan. On the upside, when it gets rainy, my mom starts to bake a lot of food, especially bread. YUM fresh bread!

Fruits and Flowers

One of my best friends is graduating college today. I'm so excited for her! Well, most of my graduating class is finishing college right around now, but I'm especially excited for her! And soon she will be back in town for me to get to see! And then we will be getting ready for her wedding in November! Eeeek!

Baby Raspberries!

Despite the discouraging clouds, rain and wind that we've been having in Washington the last few weeks, it is still spring. Things are beginning to grow. There are flowers everywhere! Tiny green fruits are all over our backyard. I can't wait until they are ripe enough to eat! 

This one got instagrammed....

My mom has a huge orchard and berry patches all over our back yard. Some days, I wander into the yard and eat fresh fruit all day. Raspberries are my favorite, and we have a ton of them. I took a walk through the other day and couldn't help but snap a few photos of all the new life.

Speaking of new life, I saw a baby deer the other day! I usually see baby cows when I drive to school and work. And I see baby goats all the time. I almost never get to see baby deer. So cute!

Baby Grapes

Blueberries on the right, Apples in the background

Dogwood Flowers, post-Instagram

So Pinteresting?

I don't get Pinterest. I just don't get it. I've encountered a LOT of people lately who are "addicted" to it. I simply don't understand. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong? As someone who tends to go a little overboard, I was initially reluctant to start using Pinterest. I've found it a little under-stimulating, but I don't hate it. One of the great things that I learned last year was to love real life a lot and enjoy social media in moderation. I no longer spend hours on the Facepage. I can hardly spend twenty minutes on it these days, unless, of course, I have a paper due!

What exactly changed my mind about Pinterest? Weddings obviously! One of my best and oldest friends got engaged this spring and I've been struggling with what to get for her wedding and shower presents. We're too close to get her some sort of kitchen gadget off her registry! I now have one board just for floral sundresses and one for wedding presents. I attempted a Google search for wedding gift ideas but it was to no avail. My search yielded the following ideas: 1) Knit/crochet a blanket/throw/afghan 2) Quilt a blanket. 3) Frame their wedding invitation. Those were all the ideas. Thanks internet, you were a big help. Not. This where Pinterest showed it functionality and I decided to take the leap into this hyper-girly world...

I saw [and pinned] these cute tea towels because I thought it was an apron. Then I had the best idea: hand made aprons. Sexy ones! Nobody else is going to hand make her sexy aprons! I found this cute apron that I'm going to base the new ones on. I like that it looks really feminine, but it is also really functional, won't show stains and has pockets!

In Bloom

I thought that this cute piece of art would be great for their actual wedding. I recently had to choose from a wedding registry that was comprised mainly of things that said either "his and hers" or "I do". Wedding themed stuff is great... when you're newly weds. But I don't really want to spend thirty dollars on a tacky picture frame that you won't really want in 10 years. I immediately loved this when I saw it, because it is going to be cute in any room and it doesn't shout "LOOK WE'RE NEWLYWEDS" the way some other things do. I do not know, however, why the photo is so low quality. It reads "We met, we married, we live", and the hearts are cut from those places on a map. Cute, right?

 

Love Map

My last idea for their wedding gift is a little bit more awesome! My parents took up the hobby of wine making a few years ago. They're getting pretty darn good at it! I want to make [brew?] them a batch of wine and give them a bottle for their wedding. I also want to give them a bottle on their first anniversary. And their second. And third. Wine just gets better with age, so I want to prepare twenty one bottles of wine, one for their wedding through 21st anniversary. Plus, it will cost me about the same amount of money to make one bottle of wine as it will to twenty, since we make it in five gallon carboys.

LasVegas Wedding Favors

I don't see any reason why I can't do all those ideas. Well, if I have the time and money is the only real factor, but I think I can handle them! My mom already agreed to help me with the aprons, and if I can get my dad to help with the wine, the I'll be set! I'll just have twenty bottles of wine that I can't touch....

Friday's Letters

My dear friend Lizzie coerced me to get Instagram. And I love it. Feel free to follow me @jenniferjew. Also, I got on Twitter this week! @jenniferjewface

I think Twitter and Pinterest are both really weird. I've only been on either of them for a few days, and already a bunch of strangers follow me. I suppose I will just have to refrain from posting anything too personal. That can't be that hard!

A sad picture of my favorite city!

And now for Friday's Letters!

Dear Finals, Please be sweet to me this quarter. I know it has been a while since I took classes, but if you could go easy on me this time around, that'd be awesome!

Dear Other Drivers, Why do you aggressively pull onto the road in front of me only to go ten under the speed limit? And WHY must you do this on days that I am late to class??

Dear World, If it involves a cell phone camera or Instagram, please do not call it a "photo shoot". Also, if your mother is involved, it probably isn't a photo shoot. Be honest: it's Vanity.

Dear Body, I'm happy that you've adjusted to the daily workouts. But if you could be "in shape" faster, that would be awesome. I've agreed to a rock climbing party and I just don't want to look like a fool!

Dear Laundry, Be done please. I really would like it if you could be done, once and for all.

Dear Summer,  I'm ready! If you didn't know, you're the season when I get to hike and run and jump! I get to swim and fall and sleep in the sunshine. Mkay Pumpkin?

Friday Letters

I've gotten on Bloglovin today. It's still a struggle for me to use the computer. well, I may or may not forget my password anyways. Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Dear School, Why you no give me scholarship? Did you not get the memo that I can't afford to pay for college? I'd really it if I could have a sweet grant! I have good grades and everything!

 

Dear Foster Kids That Live With Me, please stop talking loudly on the phone til the wee hours of the night. Also, please stop taking my booze and money. Really? Anything that's not nailed down?

Dear Benson and Stabler, Thank you for keeping me company this month. You've been lifesavers!

Dear Work, Please consolidate the number of superiors I have. It'd be a blessing!

Dear Body, I need you to be less sick and tired. I understand that you're sick and tired, but I need you to be healthy and energetic! 

Dear Steampunk Guy from Business Class, Where have you been? I haven't seen you in over a week. That guy in sweatpants has been sitting next to me since you've been gone. I hope you didn't drop that class! You're one of my favorite parts of that class because you say the funniest things!

Dear Summer, I'm ready for you to be here. I'm done with the rain. I was spoiled with sunshine when I went to New Orleans. I'm not prepared for this rain!

Dear New Girl, Please be different than other shows and don't stop for summer. I need your funny one-liners in my life! I'm not ready for you to be gone so soon! What if you're just like Pushing Daisies? There could be a Writers Guild strike again that destroys all the best shows! What if!

Dead Week

For a lot of folks this week last week or next week is dead week: the week before finals where nothing happens. No club meetings, no sporting events. Just stress. That's this week for me. There isn't that much going on, but it is super stressful.

A few months ago I applied to a really great dental assisting program at a local school. They have one of the best technical programs in the state. After leaving there, you don't have a certificate, you have your Associates degree in Dental Assisting Technology AND a certificate [and a few other certificates!] I applied a few months ago and have been waiting a few months to find out if I got in. They denied me! I instantly gave up. Luckily my mom has a friend at the school who works in enrollment. She gave her a call and found out what I could do. It turns out that when they evaluated my transcripts, they missed several classes. So they let me in. [Thank you Lord]

My sister's kids being CRAZY!

One would think that this is a blessing. It is. But NOT a load off my chest. In my glee, I took the time to look in depth at my course load for the next year. It will be insanely full. Some quarters, I take seven classes and have to work in a clinic. I got instantly stressed out! I'm struggling now with my THREE classes and part time job! OI! Thinking about this really freaked me out! I've had to tell myself "STOP! BREATHE!" so many times this week. I'm a smart lady. I can do this.

On top of the stress of finals coming up, feeling overwhelmed by what I just committed to and being as poor as a church mouse, my sister's nanny has unexpectedly taken the week off. I've been watching her kids all week, which means waking up around 5 AM rather than my usual 9 and being busy 100% of the time. My homework has suffered.

They found a snake!

A few little things have added to the stress this week too. Our foster kids have been having really bad attitudes lately. They've also stolen a ton of our stuff this week. It's frustrating when people make themselves welcome to things you'd rather then not invite themselves to. It also started raining again and I haven't seen any friends yet this week either.

On the upside, today is Champagne Thursday. It is ALWAYS the best day!