bee happy 🐝

The fact that it's a new month feels so refreshing. And I'm hoping that March will bring lots of big changes and adventure. In the meantime, I am focusing on finding happiness in the little moments.

friday favorites 11.23.18

What a week this one has been. I finished out my first dental rotation, so I head off to a new clinic on Monday morning. On one hand I'm sad about leaving my current clinic that I have grown so fond of these last 8 weeks, but I also couldn't be more excited about the fact that I'm moving forward. Seriously, lots of transitions happening this week. Let's take a peak. 

why we're skipping thanksgiving

We are only a week away from Thanksgiving! Can’t you just picture it? That perfectly glazed golden brown turkey surrounded by a beautiful table-scape full of pumpkins and gourds and family and friends and all the best fixins. If this has your mouth watering and you heart bursting, if Thanksgiving is your thing, then more power to ya Sister. Get your gobble gobble on. I’m not here to judge. But for me, Thanksgiving never has been and never will be a good thing. 

Without ever really making a conscious decision, we slowly started skipping Thanksgiving. Small decisions at first that eventually turned into us out-rightly rejecting the holiday all together. This Thanksgiving is actually the first time we will even be in the country in years, since we were in Iceland last Thanksgiving and in Mexico the year before that. But even though we will be stateside for the holiday this year, we have no intention of celebrating it. And here’s why? 

friday favorites 11.09.18

Don't ya just love Fridays? What a happy sunshiny day! This week has been a frustrating one so I'm happy to see it end. Either the computer system was down, limiting access to patient charts OR we were short-staffed at the clinic. So it's been a rough week where even the simple things were unnecessarily difficult. 

But not to worry, there were still plenty of highlights to this week. 

a change of plans

I've been a little bit absent on the blog this past week because we have been having some unexpected changes around here. Most notably being that my in-laws are no longer visiting us this weekend because my MIL is in the hospital, so  we are now going to them instead. 

Some other changes that have been happening have been minute and had no effect, but others have had me rescheduling things that were supposed to happen in October and pushing them back as far as December. So this week has been a crazy one to say the least, but hopefully things will balance out again soon. 

a peek at our place

Since signing the lease for our apartment together back in July, a lot has happened. I left the country twice ✌🏾, sat for a portion of my licensing exam, and spent my summer quite literally drowning in work. So decorating wasn't exactly at the top of my to-do list. 

Over the summer, I only spent weekends at our new place since I was still finishing up one last term at the dental school. Finally, right at the end of September, I was able to move here permanently with starting my rotations. Now that I'm here on a daily basis, we have been able to make some real headway so I thought I'd share a peek at our place while it's in progress. Here are some snaps all from my iPhone for now until this place is ready for a full blown apartment tour. 

friday favorites 09.21.18

This past week has been a crazy one with Hurricane Florence throwing such a big wrench into the mix. Yet, I can honestly say that this week and today in particular have been the best that I've had in a long time. 

And here's why....

friday favorites 08.10.18

This first full week of August has been a crazy good one that was so great to celebrate. 

just keep swimming

Feels like I barely have time to come up for air these days. Between moving to a new state, my international dental mission trip, and prepping for some pretty big things with grad school (more on all of this to come)-these last few weeks got away from me. 

will I finish my 101 things in 1001 days list?

I've been steadily working through my 101 in 1001 list over the past couple of years and sharing updates as I go. I really set some big goals with my list...like visiting 3 new countries and finishing up my doctorate degree. No small feats. 

a little life update

It's been awhile with having been out the country for the last week and a half. I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the life changes happening right now. I will share some official posts on everything once I figure out where to start, but for now here's a little life update. 

America, you are Beautiful

Hello from the Dominican Republic! I may be on a mission trip in another country right now, but I can't help but think about my favorite place today. 

friday favorites 06.22.18

Seriously, you guys--what a week. A busy, crazy, hectic, amazingly good week. Normally, I'm counting down the days until Friday, but I loved everything about this week.

surprised....with a NEW CAR!

If you follow me on instagram, then you already know that I rolled into this week in a brand new car! 🚙 Of course, I wanted to document this crazy sweet story of how this all happened because it was a complete SURPRISE to me and there is so much gratitude and relief around this.

Let's start out by talking about my old car. I had an 11 year old Honda Civic, but you would think it was even older than that. In fact, I've completely lost faith in Honda (even though I had 2 other Honda cars prior to this one that I loved) after my experience with constant problems with this car over the years. Lots of things were falling apart that are beyond the normal wear and tear. But there were a few big issues that have become major problems. 

DIY: graduation gift box

This weekend, we got to celebrate my little sister's high school graduation. And I was happy to fulfill the big sister roll by spoiling her rotten with gifts. But honestly, she deserves it for graduating summa cum lade and landing a college scholarship. Can you tell that I am a proud big sister? 

I'm a BIG fan of the little details so I decided to wrap her big gift from me in a very special gift box. 

I designed this gift box to look just like a "cap and mortarboard". It got soooo many compliments at my sister's graduation party that I constantly had people asking me where I bought it and then how I made it, once I revealed it was a DIY. So I decided to share this quick DIY here since this is an easy project with a big WOW factor. 

Here's how I made it: 

friday favorites 06.15.18

Happy Friday! 

This week has been a rollercoaster with dental school so I'm happy to be calling it. I'm not just looking forward to this weekend, I need the break! Ha! 

But don't let my exhaustion fool you. Overall, I've had a pretty wonderful week. 

the last year of my twenties

I feel so lucky that I got to celebrate my 29th birthday in Martha's Vineyard. It was a weekend filled with beach-combing, biking, hiking, lighthouses, lobster, time with my husband, and all the pink rhododendrons.

 Twenty-nine honestly feels like such a monumental year as I approach the end of my twenties...the end of a decade. I thought I would dread this age, but instead I'm looking forward to it. I may have picked up a few extra pounds and a few bad habits in my twenties. But more than anything, I've picked up the best experiences. I traveled the world. I found the best cutest sweetest pup that a girl could ask for to call my own. I hiked all the miles and camped in the best places. I found the love of my life and was lucky enough to marry him. I earned a B.S. in Biology and am so close to earning my doctorate degree and achieving my life-long goal of becoming a dentist. I've been selfish and made my twenties all about me. I gave myself a whole decade to do nothing, but accomplish my dreams. So I'm very much looking forward to this last year of my twenties and all of the adventures that it will bring before this next stage of life. Happy Birthday to Me! 

friday favorites 06.08.18

Today is the best Friday ever because it's my B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y! Since it has been a while since I shared a Friday Favorites, I thought today of all days deserved one because I have so much extra to be grateful for this week. Also, I've really missed these weekly favorites but took a break away last month because May 2018 was so tough for me.

 Every Friday, I would try to think of the best parts of my week, but the only favorite thing was that it was over. Of course that wasn't true, but I was having a hard time having a positive attitude towards life. Thankfully, June is treating me so much better and I'm starting to get back to my old self. 

101 in 1001: Update #5

A tale of procrastination: I meant to share this update in May, but didn't because I was avoiding writing it. Not because I didn't want to, just because I thought that it would take soooo long. 

As it turns out, I didn't really check that much off my list since my last update so writing this post took a whopping 22 minutes--including this intro. Oops! Too bad I didn't check off item #45 which is to stop procrastinating.

staying flexible while traveling

I'm currently typing this from our hotel room in Phoenix. We just arrived here---two days sooner than planned.