Retirement

Hello world and faithful readers. I love each and every one of you! Thank you so much for reading my blog and being a part of my life as I rambled on and on over the last couple of years. "Snapshots" has been a wonderful outlet for me and an amazing adventure. And I've even had the joy of running across some wonderful blogs through by you!
I've mentioned a few times in the last months that my goal was to create a new blog and get it up and running. Well, today is the day. From Sole to Soul is the place where you can find me now as I put Snapshots of an Ordinary Woman into retirement. I hope you'll continue to laugh along, maybe cry some, and always smile with me as I write about life in a slightly more focused way.

Again, thank you for reading and commenting and being there for me in life when I needed you most. I'm so grateful.

xoxo

My life today

I apologize. I have disappeared for a while.....This semester has been extremely busy between trying to finish up school, working, track, working on the new blog, and recently job and apartment searching.
But, I will be a college graduate in 13 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still can't believe it. It's such an amazing feeling.

Mornings like today are my favorite. I woke up to sunshine and perfect degree weather. I have time to sit and enjoy my coffee before getting ready for church. I think I'm starting to find my morning person again, it's always hard to enjoy the day when you wake up in the dark of winter. Sometimes I wish I could just skip over those few months every year.....

I thought I'd give you all a little update of my life while I can. School is going well. It's been very busy and very stressful, but I'm almost done. A few more papers and two days of intensive finals and I'm done with my undergraduate career. Wow. Then, one class this summer, with a lot of free time around that, and I'll start teaching some entry level writing classes this fall. I better study up on my comma usage. :) I'm hoping to have a really good summer. Mostly working and then my Irish lit class. But I also have to study up on my French so I can pass the language exam in the fall. I'm also hoping to get into my yoga again. I've been working on it for the past month, trying to help myself relax but also compliment the running I haven't been doing.

Next subject: my hip. I had my MRI and what was explained to me was that I have extra fluid in the joint, as well as the pelvic area. So... more tests and more doctor mumbo jumbo. My outdoor season was pretty much over at the beginning, but actually, I'm ok with that because I didn't need the running as much as I did last fall. And I'm at the point where I want my injury healed so I can run later. I want to do a marathon sometime soon....


I've also been job and apartment searching. Apartment=check. I have the two best roommates for next year and we sign the lease on Friday. Then it's finals and moving! Busy busy but great. My new place is across town from where I am at now, but it has carpet! I have been so tired of living on tile floor for the past years, if anything I really think the carpet is going to make it feel like a home. One of my roommates and I are already collecting pictures to cover our walls. It'll be good living with people again, and the three of us are all so individual, we'll have no problem getting along. As for the job, I had a phone interview this week with a bank, and I have an interview on Monday for a waitressing job. As much as I'd love the salary of the bank job, I'm afraid the hours aren't going to be the easiest to work with... and besides, my mom always says everyone needs a little food service experience. And I love people, and I love to write so a waitressing job somewhere will probably be perfect for me.

The new blog is slowly looking great. I haven't written on it yet, as promised, I'm waiting until summer... and when I do start, I'll link from here so you all have the new web address. Since my focus for my master's is in writing, I'm really hoping that my blog will be a place where I can focus on crafting my work instead of just randomly writing, but don't worry, that part of my writing won't completely disappear. I'll still be there. I just looking at it as a progression....

So friends, I hope life is wonderful where ever you are at! Find the good today and it will be...
XOXO

Thought on a Friday

Thanks to April Fool's, I'm pretty sure it has just been one of those weeks.

It's Friday morning, I walk into a crazy office where everything is dumped on me, on top of a headache, and a bad night before.
Five weeks....that's all I keep telling myself. My mantra right now. Five weeks and all of this (school, work, stress) is gone.
Five weeks.

3 Thoughts on a Friday

I must thoroughly be enjoying Spring break because my days have been complete off! I thought yesterday was Wednesday and I didn't even realize today was Friday the 13th!

1. I really can't believe it's Friday already. The weeks NEVER go this fast when I'm in classes. I don't regret staying at home over my break (not like I really could have done anything else anyway...) but I can say this week has gotten me ready for summer. Sure, it isn't as warm as it was on Monday, but the whole not doing anything but working is actually a nice break. I've forgotten how wonderful summer is. I don't plan on traveling anywhere major for a long time, my summer will mostly be spent here in town (in a new apartment!) and hopefully serving up coffee or selling books.

2. I'm headed out to Indy again tonight with the bestie to a friend's house. Our original plan was to go to a club and dance our stresses away, but then the girl who had the idea up and went to Florida on us. So now, it's just chilling with some friends and a hot tub. I like that idea. I should really do this de-stress thing more often... except I don't always know how.

3. After today, only 8 more weeks of my undergraduate career left! I cannot believe it is almost time for me to graduate... it's just ridiculous. I'm so glad I am where I am today, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Life still has it's rocky moments (but when do it not?) but, learning how to handle sudden change, to be able to move forward, to accept life for what it is and still being able to love is worth everything. I'm not saying I'd do it all again but I'm not saying I'd go back and change my life either. I've always heard acceptance is always the hardest step and it is... I'm still going through it. But I'm going through it. And that is what matters.


Have a good weekend everyone!

A Note on the Change (did you notice it?)

Hello World!!!!!!!!

Oh how spring break feels wonderful, even if I have just stayed at home all week. I've been resting and getting things done which is what I have needed to do. Once again my blog has changed... I know, I know, I can't seem to keep things straight around these parts. Anyway, just my title has changed, that's all.
I switched it back to what it used to be because I'm starting a new blog. And again, I know I've done that before. I had my travel blog, and my free write blog, but those are done and gone! This one will stay around, it's been my life for the past two years... but with everything changing, I want something new, something more focused. I'm not going to get it up and running just yet, it's a work in progress. So until I do, I'll still write here. But... eventually, it will be time to retire my first outlet.
I've just had time to think this week, and though I love writing on this blog, and everyone reading it, I'm just a new person. I need to move on from some of this (I deleted some posts already) and focus more on my writing. This has kind of been like a sporadic outpouring for me, and thank you to all who have read and kept up and put up with all of my words. I love you for that. I just feel that I'm ready to become more focused in my writing. Be a little more serious, more crafty, more purposeful in what I say than just sporadic. I look to try to start things in the summer, maybe before I start grad school.... Snapshots feels like my undergrad blog almost, my 'life before.' There is so much I haven't written about and so much I want to write about.... I need a different outlet. So friends, keep reading. I've still got eight weeks of my sporadic and crazy undergraduate life to write about.

Here's to a good day!!

I think I can make it....

If I don't make it to spring break in two days, I might just collapse.

Actually, I don't have class on Friday, so technically tomorrow is all I have to make it through. Yet I have to finish a paper, study for a midterm, write some journal entries, apply for an award and somewhere in all of that find enough rest so I can workout tomorrow afternoon.

Along with my mind my body is broken.

Oh why oh why did I sign up for two more years?....Off to work.

4 Thoughts on a Friday

Happy Friday!!! After a decently busy week (as usual) I'm living my favorite day with a scatterbrained mind:

1. Only one more week until Spring Break, however, these next seven days are going to be the seven busiest days of my life considering I have three papers due, due award applications, and homework. But, a week of freedom will be bliss. I still have no plans (there's talk of camping, of St. Petersburg, of Ireland...not really)but I have this feeling it's going to be here at home where I plant myself and enjoy sleeping in and doing absolutely nothing. As long as I'm with friends and my love, it doesn't really matter where I am.

2. I finally saw the team doc on Tuesday and the diagnosis wasn't as bad as I thought. No amputation! :) After some rigorous testing, he concluded I just have a weak hip. The muscles seems to not want to absorb energy as well as they do on my other joint. So, I'm off running for three weeks and strength training like you wouldn't believe. The off running part isn't as bad as I thought since I'm in between indoor and outdoor seasons. It's actually the best time to be cross training right now. As for strength training, I'm working with the trainer three days a week and in the weight room the other two. Rest on weekends. So far, I've done two days and I can barely feel my legs. I am so sore, but taking the pain in hopes that this hip gets better. I'd rather have to strength train/lift the rest of my life to keep my hip functioning without pain so I can run, than to have surgery and be sidelined for the next however many years I have left.

3. There are only 70 days until I graduate from college. Yesterday I acquired my cap and gown and it's so crazy to think I'm almost done. This last year is going way to fast, part of me thinks, but I'm also excited. I'm looking forward to a nice summer break and teaching/writing in the fall. I may only have freshman but I'll be teaching college and possibly working on what may become my best selling novel. I never, ever saw that one coming.

4. Life is just good. There are so many things I could be worrying about these days, but I have a wonderful family who I care deeply for, the most amazing friends who make my life so fun and who I hold as my sisters, and someone to love and spend my days with. Love, in all of those aspects, outweighs everything else.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Catching Zzzz's

For some reason tonight, I am extremely exhausted. I feel like I've not slept in a week and I have absolutely no energy to do anything.
Which isn't good considering the amount of homework calling my name this weekend....
Not to mention I should probably cook dinner.

5 Thoughts on a Friday

1. TGIF!! Thank goodness it's Friday. After all my thinking about this being an decent and fairly easy semester, I was so wrong. I look forward to Fridays like I've never looked to them before. Something about knowing I can sleep in tomorrow, if only for an extra hour. Something about knowing I have two days to get a million things done, but still feeling like I'll have some free time in there. I think I love Fridays as much as I loath Wednesdays.

2. I made the mistake of going to the humane society yesterday. I had a litle free time in the afternoon and so I went just to play with the puppies for a little bit. I can't help it, I've been wanting a dog ever since I moved into my apartment two years ago. Even though it's against my least, which is the main reason I haven't gotten one yet. Plus I know they are a lot of responsibility and I want to be fair to him. With me being gone all day, it just isn't fair. So... until I can handle (and afford) one, I'll live a dogless life.

3. On the other hand, I've found two (that's right, two!) roommates for next year! I'm finally not going to be living alone anymore! Not to say that I haven't enjoyed my own place, but I just think I'm at a point where I'm ready to have roommates. The best part about this, besides living with the two coolest people I know, is that it's a really nice place and will be really cheap split between us.

4. Turns out my hip problem might be worse than I thought. The trainer still isn't really sure what's wrong with it so I have to get an X-ray on Monday and see the team Doctor on Tuesday. The trainer thinks it could be a tear somewhere, or something out of place in my joint. Pretty much, it's important that we get it fixed so I can be active later in life. I don't really mind if I end up sitting out for outdoor season... what's important is that I get fixed. I don't want to be sedentary or put on restriction for the rest of my life. I've got to keep running marathons after all.

5. I got some news that rocked my world a little bit this week but things are ok. I know my post (and this) is a little criptic, but more will come later. I'm just not ready to express things yet, however, God is good and I'm starting to see how things really do happen for a reason. God's plan is so much bigger than mine and I couldn't be more thankful that he saw fit to lead my life in the direction that it is headed right now.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

A little word vomit...

For some reason, I firmly believe that Wednesdays are against me.
Wednesday's are plotting.

Wednesdays are just like Mondays and Fridays: I work, I go to class, I go to practice, clean-up, eat, homework, sleep; however, the one difference is I do have night class but it's poetry so I love it.
Yet, every Wednesday I have been extremely tired, stressed, either snowed in or rained on, and felt like a little something was thrown at me.

Today, it rained again. And a little more then literally, there was some figurative rain too.
I can't completely grasp it yet, I just needed to word vomit because I'm a shocked and my sorts are off.

Everyone in my life is ok, things are ok, it's just life happens sometimes and changes and you all know I'll be blogging about it sometime. So bear with me and please, please don't let the Wednesday's get to you too.