I'm in love.

With my Nook.

I know, I know... I'm a total nerd. But I can't help it. I love to read. And since I have about four inches of space in my little house, I just don't have room for the mass of books I keep purchasing from Amazon.com (one of my top ten all time favorite things ever). And since I had some gift cards for Barnes & Noble (thank you, Mom!), I decided to bite the bullet and get me a Nook. I'd only been coveting it for a year.

Need I mention the $130 Kate Spade Nook cover that I had drooled over when it first hit the shelves? Well, fate was on my side the day I bought my Nook - Kate Spade was marked down 75%. Snatched that right up. Oh, that thing we call justification.... tricky little thing!

Moral of the story is that I highly recommend a Nook for any of my fellow book nerds/escapists out there. I'd even recommend justifying the purchase of a fabulous little cover.

The only thing I'll miss is that smell that only the inside of a book can have... mmmmm.

Speaking of revamping...

... my blog is in serious need.

I'm not sure if it's because I just re-did my room or because Spring is in the air (well, has been for several months now) or if I'm just antsy for change (again) (it's about that time). But all I can think about is how I want to get up and shake off the dust and get going with so many things. I feel like I have these spurts where I get all motivated and dreamy and start thinking of all the million ways I'm going to change my life or shake things up. This is definitely one of those times. And revamping my blog is just one of those many (many) things.

I have spent a large (and kind of embarrassing) amount of time this morning blog-stalking. And yes, I'm at work. I am probably going to get canned since our computer use is totally monitored. Ah well. It's not like it's that hard to find a job these days.... Anyway, what I was saying was that I have stalked a lot of blogs today and over the last several weeks. I may be a little obsessed with a few. Some because they are good reads, others because I'm jealous of the witty/intellectual/clever content. But most because of the design and all around awesomeness of the blog. So I've got a new layout and design for my own blog rolling around in my head. It's gonna be fabulous. All I need is to get everything off my dead laptop so I have access to all my pictures and such. This is an important step in revamping my blog. So I'm not sure when this will all take place. All I know is that if I don't do it soon, I will go nutssss looking at the same boring blog over and over again. Since I'm a re-born blogger and everything...

Um, and let's talk about how I just noticed the Micky Mouse silhouettes on my blogger background... Go ahead and hunt them out, I know you want to. I only ever see the skinny view of my blog so I'm not surprised I didn't notice them before. But wow, feeling kind of like a 12 year-old all over again. Just like I did with my circus stripes room. Must. Revamp. Soon. Hold tight, a change is a comin'!

Don't hold your breath though - you know how I am with blogging and promises. It's baby steps for me, people. Baby steps.

Way overdue.

Yes, this post. But also the not-so-extreme makeover (but makeover nonetheless) that I did on my bedroom. I finally graduated from my college-girl days and revamped my little portion of personal space. There's something about re-doing and color scheming and deep cleaning that makes one feel like a new woman. I finally let go of my twenties. It's one of the only ways in my life right now where it's nice to finally be a grown-up. It only took me until I am nearly 30 to do it. And it only took me three months to post about it. No big deal.


If I could explain my room, as it was, in one run-on sentence it would go something like this:

My room was an embarrassing mixture between a nursery and a circus and was never a place I wanted to take guests because it looked like a 12 year-old lived there and I was afraid circus music would spontaneously start playing every time I opened the door because of all the stripes and colors and orange-ish red light coming from the almost-ten-year-old lamp that gave some of the only light to my room (but that I was grateful for since there is no overhead light) and all my little nick-nacks and picture frames and college-girl stuff that had me endlessly pining for the day when I could afford a room that resembled that of a mature, independent, design savvy woman. Phew...

My computer died and I have been pictureless for quite some time now, so thank goodness for Averi's blog where I was able to steal a couple pictures of my room when we first moved in so that you could see what it looked like before. So without further ado, here are the before and afters of my I'm a Big Girl Now Makeover:

BEFORE. This was taken the first couple weeks after we moved in. The stripes came with the room.

BEFORE. This was on my birthday, about a month before I left for Ukraine. SUUUPER circus-y with the balloons and streamers! Oh, and there's the orange light!!

IN BETWEEN. First things first - got rid of the stripes. I painted the walls Tumbleweed Tan, which turned out to be a lot darker than I was expecting but I love it... Then I cleared out and donated everything from my old room. And got this fabulous rug.

IN BETWEEN. Setting up the bed, shelf, and night stand...

AFTER. Ta Da!! The finished product. New EVERYTHING...

 

Did I mention that I did all of this with this year's tax refund? Oh how I love you, tax money!

 

Anyway, I'm sure no one is even reading my blog anymore since it's been so long since I last posted so I may be talking to myself here. But I just wanted to document one of the minor changes that has happened in my life recently. If anything, I had a good time shopping and re-doing, and using a tiny tiny bit of my design skills. And hey, I sleep much better at night on that dream of a mattress I bought. That along with the fact that I finally feel like a big girl...

I decided to blog about fall afterall....

So, it's November. And Thanksgiving is only a couple weeks away. Which means Christmas is just right around the corner. Literally - the Wal-Mart up the street is already decked, along with every other store I've been in recently. And it gets dark so early these days, it just feels like holiday time. And then you step outside and it's still 80 degrees after the sun has gone down. It's kind of a trip.


But I love it. L-O-V-E IT. It's why I chose to live here. For the warmth. For the lack of snow and bitter coldness. For the sunshine... If there are other things lacking in my life, the sunshine almost makes up for them. It just feels so good outside, especially at night. So much so that we have been taking walks around the neighborhood after dark. It's funny - we take leisurely strolls in capris and t-shirts when I'm pretty sure it's snowing at home and in Utah. What's even funnier is that I got a little chilly the other night when we were standing around outside chatting with some friends. I found myself rubbing my arms and even saying "brrrr" a couple times. When we got in the car, the temperature read 74 degrees. You know you are completely acclimated when you are cold in weather that matches the temperature my parents heat the house to in the winter. And when you break out the winter clothes after the highs start dropping below 80, you know there's no turning back - you're a gonner. 


I just have to laugh to myself when I think about it - a girl that was raised in Colorado, went to school in Idaho, lived in Utah for three years, and just spent seven months (majority of which were winter months) in Eastern-freezing-cold Europe. It's just still a little weird to me that I live in Arizona. I have to admit that I really really miss the trees of Colorado and Utah. They are so beautiful in the fall. I find myself getting nostalgic and homesick the most at this time of year. September to November are my favorite months because of of the changing colors and the crispness of fall in the mountains. And I'm not even afraid to admit that I miss snow. But just a little bit. A tiny tiny bit. Not even enough for it to count towards anything, really. It's just the idea of it... snow at the holidays. And then I remember how it really is and I'm right back in the sunshine and palm trees, being happy that I'm not scraping an inch of ice off my car every morning.


Ahhh, the sunshine. I love you, Arizona.

I'm Ba-aack!

I know, I know... it's been far too long since I have blogged. But to be quite honest, I haven't really had anything blog-worthy to blog about since I left Ukraine. Life is just not very adventurous for me these days. Especially when I'm not living in some far-away European city and traveling all over the place while I'm at it. And when the whole point of my blog was to document my travels and life as a "gypsy," it feels funny to keep using it. I apologize to all the many (ha ha ha... ha ha) followers I have for being such a stranger to my own blog. 


Today though, I have a reason to blog. I mean, yeah, I could blog about how fall in Arizona is flipping amazing (the days are still warm - Averi and I laid by the pool yesterday [yes, it's ok to be jealous] - but the nights are cool enough to wear a jacket and it smells like fall... could it get any better??) or how I have a (sexy) new(ish) car that doesn't give me stomach ulcers at the thought of it. But nay, today I am going to blog about a little healthy competition that I am participating in that is giving me a reason to eat a little healthier and develop better habits. One of which encourages daily journal writing or blogging. So we can thank what we call "The Challenge" for my reappearance to the bloggersphere. 


Let me preface this for all of you who are about to give me a hard time and freak out that I am on a "diet" by saying - this IS NOT a diet. It is a challenge where healthy/better habits are encouraged. So there. 


Anyway, it goes as follows: There are 10 "habits" per day that you can do for a point each for a total of 30 days. However, if you don't do something you aren't penalized, you just don't get the point for that habit for that day. The goal is to have 70 points at the end of each week when you log in your points to the group. There are about 35 other people participating and we are held somewhat accountable to each other so it makes it fun and a little competitive (maybe more than a little competitive for some of us...). Anyway, the ten habits include things like drinking at least 48 ounces of water per day (a lot harder than I thought it would be... clearly I'm not drinking enough!), eating two servings of fruits and two servings of vegetables per day, not eating sweets (sob sob sob...), writing in your journal (or blogging), reading 15 minutes of uplifting material, and achieving a personal goal, among a few others. You are allowed one "cheat" per habit per week for a free point, which can I just say was a genius rule to include in the challenge.


I'd like to take this time to admit that I thought I was going to die the first couple of days. Ok, who am I kidding? I still think I might die and we are on day five. I love love love my sweets and I could hardly wait until Friday (my strategically placed "cheat" day for my sweets) so that I could tear into my chocolate stash in my drawer at work. You know you have a problem when.... 


However, I think this is the perfect challenge for me. Like I mentioned before, I'm kind of competitive when it comes to things like this and it goes without saying that I could use having a few more healthy habits in my life. If anything (even if I lose, heaven forbid), it has shown me what I am doing too much and what I'm not doing enough in my life. It has become very clear to me that in most areas of my diet/life, I'm not as up to par as I thought I was. So, come death from lack of chocolate or drowning in my own bloated water overdose, this should be an interesting (to say the least) 30 days. I'll do my best to keep you all posted on my progress. If anything to let you know if I won the money or not. Oh, did I not mention that? Yeah, that's kind of a big incentive for me to keep strong while shunning candy bars and oatmeal cream pies.


Anyway, no promises on the keeping you posted part though. I'm pretty sure I mentioned four or more months ago that I still had posts I wanted to post about Ukraine. I'm still totally going to do it.

Heck yes.

There's nothing that sounds better than the cha-chinging of dollar signs after a loooooooong and vicious financial drought.

Unemployment sucks.

That's why every time I've thought about my new job this week, I've just wanted to take off running - pausing only to do a heel click in the air. I mean, I GOT A JOB! Like a real one that actually pays me better wages than my high school jobs did. A major cause for celebration for me.

I'm actually back at Waterstone Mortgage - the company I was working for before I left for Ukraine. I was the receptionist then. And I have been doing temporary paper work for them since I've been back. But now my boss has asked me to stay on as a loan processor, with a significant pay raise and about a five-rung move up the ladder. Talk about a promotion! Woo hoo. I even get my own cubicle. That's right, be jealous.

And yes, the three years' worth of interior design knowledge I aquired in school IS totally helping me in this job. Not.

But I could really care less about that at this point... I HAVE A JOB!!

Now let's all cross our fingers that the boss also hires a single, handsome (need I mention tall?), 30-something loan officer whose loans I can process. Among other things...

Ok, scratch that. I'm totally pushing my luck with that one.

Ditto.

I don't know what my problem is these days, but I am on a serious blogging hiatus. I can't even use the excuse that I am "so busy" because let's get real here - I'm so not. I guess I just have a bad case of the blogging "blahs"... They're terrible. Anyone else ever get them?

Anyway, I still have about four posts that I must post about Ukraine and at least two about more recent happs. I am so behind... BUT, while we all (ha ha ha) anxiously await my other posts, here is a tidbit that Averi and I found particularly amusing slash perfect for us today. (Sorry for any mutual readers that we have). But um, yeah, couldn't have said it better myself.