Grown Up Life

T and I are slowly starting the adjustment towards grown up life. He's taking it better than I am, but he's had a few years of experience on me. :) I graduate this coming Saturday (the 18th), and it's a bit overwhelming for me. I break out randomly and cry for little to no reason, and sometimes with good reason. Regardless, we're going to make this transition!

I've slowly started packing up my stuff to move out. And by slowly I mean I've managed to almost empty my entire bookshelf into boxes in the last... three days. But hey, I have until the end of June and I'm getting an early start! As usual, I have a

most ...helpful little helper. Pretty much as soon as I empty any form of small, enclosed space, Yoshi has to come and sleep in it. I should really look into building her a cat fortress.

T got his job moved up to the metro, so he's been commuting the past few days (days? it feels like weeks!). The first few days were really rough for him and I felt really bad (I mean, it wasn't my fault but I don't like him being miserable at work!). Luckily he made a request that I was able to follow through with. He requested that I make something that he could keep in his pocket at work that he can pull out or just hold onto that will remind him of me. Good thing I'm crafty as all get out, right?

Also lucky for him (and me), the Mad Crafter just recently made an awesome blog post about making charms with polymer clay, saving me the trouble of almost trying my hand at salt dough. I don't actually own salt, and it was a lot less painful to buy clay than a bucket of salt.

I made two, because the first was a test run to make sure the settings on everything worked correctly. I found that the temp and time were a little off for my oven (realistically, my oven is horrible), so the top actually got a little burnt coloring to it. :( Regardless, I strung it up and made a second one at a lower temp and shorter time.

 

And because I'm German I had to include "Ich liebe dich" (I love you) on the back of the second one. :)

Alright, so... student teaching is over and I'm wrapping up a few loose ends for classes so I can graduate for real. I mean... really. Yeah, yeah, I'm nervous...

Ahhhh, grown up life!

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and everything else.

It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm pretty terrible at updating blogs, not going to lie. Just prod me with a fork periodically and I'll pretend to know what's going on. I got to spend a portion of Thanksgiving break at home with my family, which was a lot of fun. It meant seeing my niece and nephews that I normally don't get to see, which is always great. It also meant playing scrabble with my mom, which is one of those things that my mom and I always do when I come home because my dad is a little challenged in the spelling field. He could eventually play something, but only after asking us how to spell enough words that we knew the words on his tile bench. :)

Christmas was exceptionally grand this year for me. I had a lot of different Christmas' this year, which is something new for me. The weekend before Christmas I got to hang out with Thomas and his family, and then Christmas Eve was dinner with Dan and Bri (brother and sister in law). Christmas day I spent with my parents lounging around the house, and that evening we went to Bri's parents' new house to check it out and have some dessert. Speaking of Christmas, since I'm perpetually poor, I made all of my gifts this year. My mom, Bri, and Thomas' mom all got the same present (which I should seriously make for myself one of these days), which was a foot rice warmer. (The tutorial can be seen here on Jenna's blog, I didn't design it, she did.)

They came out really well, and minus the slight smell of rice, they work really well. My mom likes to carry hers around on her hands, so I should probably look into making one that's smaller for her pockets or something.

Thomas' present was delayed, mostly because I couldn't think of what to make him up until two weeks before Christmas, at which time I was heading home to spend time with my family. I gave him a choice between a pillow or a blanket (I've made him a House Stark sigil set previously, but I wanted to go another route this time), and he picked a blanket. He mentioned something about someone hogging the House Stark sigil blanket when they visit, but I'm not sure what he's talking about. ;D I decided to go the Star Wars route and made the Rebel symbol (which was a lot harder to cut out than it looks). Also, I actually sewed it on with the machine, which was a major accomplishment for me. Yoshi, however, is not easily amused by the rebel forces!

Student teaching started! I got to take over my first class today, which was exciting. They're very quiet and hard to get motivated, but I have no doubt that we'll make this semester work. Oh, and on a last note, Thomas and I made sushi last night (it's with imitation crab, don't judge, I'm allergic to fish) and it was absolutely awesome. So now I will leave you with a picture of awesome sushi and a super cute (and sleepy) dog, Luke (he's Thomas').