Letter to myself

The other day I was playing around in Barnes & Nobles (my favorite place ever!!) and found a really cook book called “Letter to Yourself” which contained hundreds of letters that people had written to their future selves. It was interesting to flip through and I thought about how everyone should do something like this at one point in their life! I have an old diary that I kept from the summer before I started high school (and through my freshman year) that I love to read. It reminds me how crazy that period of my life was! It shows all the good, bad, and downright ugly! (really teenage hormones were horrible!)   :o)   So after browsing the book I decided to write a similar letter to my future self on this blog, since aren’t blogs just more updated diaries?! It was actually kind of fun to write! Sit down and write your own!

 

Dear Future Me,

How old are you when you read this and feel that it is meaningful and written to you versus funny and written to the future you? I hope you learned a lot from life, at this point you seem to be moving toward everything you’ve always wanted to be. I can honestly say that I hope everything is amazing in your life at this point!

Are you still traveling as much as possible? Did you really get to live overseas? What was it like? At this point you are busy filling out all the forms and hoping that everything goes smoothly! Where do you live? I never thought figuring out where to settle down would be so hard! Right now Denver is sounding great….but we both know how often our mind changes! All I can say is that I really hope we figured it out sooner rather than later! 🙂

How is your marriage? Do you still remember those first years when saying the word hubby/wifey would make you smile and giggle? How amazing it would feel to wake up and see someone you truly love next to you? How great it was to know your life was just starting? Do you have any kids? How many? Right now you are deep in the baby cravings, but realize that you need a little more time to enjoy being married and travel travel travel! Hopefully later this year the time will be right! 🙂 Don’t forget to tell your husband that you love him everyday…..no matter how mad you might be at him at the time 😉

Your life right now is full of work and school. Graduate school is anything but fun (although you are secretly loving using your brain again….outside of work I mean!), but hopefully you are using the degree to do something you love! Which role option did you choose? Currently I have no idea which one I want to do! Did you every go back for your Phd. like you said you would as a little girl (or are you living up to your current rantings that you will never go back to school again after this is over?!). 

Above all I hope you have kept me (the youthful me!) alive in you. Never forget how lucky you are! Our life is pretty damn good! 🙂

Love,

Your past self

Diamonds are a girls best friend

What to do, what to do?

I have a little dilemma and I’m torn as to what to do about it! My beautiful engagement ring has a problem. About a year after Dan and I got engaged I realized that one of the side diamonds was sitting a little funny in the setting so I sent it back to get fixed. It arrived just in time for our wedding and even though the diamond still looked a little funny to me I trusted them when they said that everything was “perfect”. A month passed by and Dan and I flew back from our honeymoon to Austin to celebrate the wedding of two of our closest friends. As we were driving home I looked down and noticed that the side diamond had fallen out! :*(  I was upset and called the jeweler only to be told that it must have been something that I did and therefore they would not replace the diamond & fix the ring for free. (I will save you the choice words I said at this point!!) Not trusting the jeweler anymore we decided to take the ring to another place where they examined it and told us that there was a large crack in the setting and that while they could try to fix it….it would most likely happen again and that the entire setting had been “compromised”. Since that time I rarely wear my engagement ring because I’m terrified of losing more diamonds (especially the center one!). 

Since we now feel uncomfortable keeping my current engagement ring we’ve been talking about what to. We finally decided that we would have the ring remade by a custom jeweler so we could keep the same design (but make a few changes to it so that it would truly be unique!). We wanted someone that we could sit down with, explain what we want, and who would offer suggestions – in other words someone who would help & assist us in making the ring of our dreams! Sounds good huh? Weeellll…..we spent the other day driving around to all the custom jewelers that were recommended to us and were very dissapointed in the quality of rings they had!  Nobody could actually sit down and talk/design with us (they all kept wanting us to just go through books and show them what we wanted! Not exactly “custom” in my mind!). All in all it just wasn’t a great experience.

After being disappointed again we decided to head to the jeweler that we bought my wedding band at and see if they had any recommendations for custom jewelers. Turns out they did BUT after faxing pictures and our jeweler talking to him over the phone it is going to cost us a little more than we were planning. The price didn’t really upset us but what did was that they could not guarantee that it would really turn out looking like I wanted it to because of the intricate detail that is in my ring  😦   EVERYONE we talked to that day highly recommended that we not remake the ring but instead just purchase a new setting (which would be around the same price). Here is where my dilemma is!

I love love love the design of my current ring! It is vintage looking (but with a slightly modern twist) and I have always received a lot of compliments on it. I love the idea of having my current ring but with a few cool changes! However I am terrified to hand it over to be melted down and remade….especially if nobody sounds very confident that it will turn out the same! Eeeek! Another part of me kinda likes the idea of getting a new setting (hey it is fun to ring shop and then I would have 2 rings! hahaha!). We played around and tried on a few rings the other day to get an idea of what is out there. The issue with this idea is what type of ring would I get?! Should I try to find something somewhat similar to what I have (which I haven’t seen anywhere we looked), OR get something completely different? There are some pretty cute new designs out there which I love….but the sentimental part of me gets kinda sad! What is a girl to do?!

Soooo….here is my question: What would you do?

• Take a risk and have your current ring remade
• Buy a new setting that reminds you of your current ring (but its still not the same)
• Buy a new setting that is different but that you really really like

Life Experiences

Lately Dan and I have been thinking a lot about the experience that awaits us overseas. We know that this is a once in a lifetime chance and plan to live it to the fullest. While we plan to visit and see as much as possible we agreed that we needed a “must-do” list. To accomplish this we decided to each come up with 25 things we must accomplish before we will be ready to come home. I am sure many things on our lists will match, but combined should give us a life changing trip. Coming up with my list was actually a little harder than I had thought it would be! Dan is still working on his (we agreed not to look at each others until we are finished), but here is my final finished list (in no particular order):

1.     Bike across Croatia

2.     Ride a gondola at night in Venice

3.     Drink a beer at Oktoberfest in Munich

4.     Eat pizza in Naples

5.     Try on a Royal Guard hat in London

6.     See a concert by the Vienna Boys Choir

7.     Attend a bullfight in Spain

8.     Look for Nessie at Loch Ness Lake

9.     Bike through the Bordeaux region of France

10. Spend a day at Disneyland Paris

11. Watch the sunset from a balcony in Santorini, Greece

12. See Da Vinci’s Last Supper in Milan

13. Ski the Alps

14. Visit the Christmas markets in Switzerland

15. Attend an opera at Holland Park in London

16. Spend a day reflecting at a WWII concentration camp

17. Slide down the salt mine in Salzburg

18. Stand at Stonehenge

19. Stand outside the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and listen to the call to prayers

20. Spend the Anniversary of D-day on the Normandy Beach

21. Sunbathe at Patara Beach in Turkey

22. Bike through Tuscany

23. Spend the night watching Flamenco dancers in Seville

24. Watch a soccer match at a crowded English pub

25. Walk among the millions of tulips in Holland

 

I plan to not return to the states until every single thing is marked off this list! I have a feeling I will not be the same person I am now when I return! 

School days & travel update!

I am deep deep into my first semester in Grad School and…….I am drowning! I officially take the “idiot” award for the stupid decision I made to that 4 classes this semester! Most graduate programs recommend you take only 2 classes a semester (3 if you are not working full time) but nooooooo I had to go above and beyond! :*(  I had thought that school would be basically a series of papers & online presentations, and since I have always been pretty good at researching and writing papers I thought I would be ok. I probably would be if that was what it really entailed! Instead it is ALL (and I mean ALL) group projects!! I hate working in groups! Working in groups in an online course is even worse! We basically all keep having to “discuss” our weekly topics by making multiple posts, then taking all those posts and writing a “group” paper together (or powerpoint). I have one each week due in each class (on top of everything else due…). YUCK! I completely disagree with the way this program is set up because in two of my classes I am stuck with group members who do not have a good grasp of the English language and are HORRIBLE writers (worst I have seen in the 18 years of school I’ve done). I have had to stay up late for 2 weeks now rewriting the “paper” they plan on turning in from our group. These people who have no business passing will pass because I have to do the work to keep up MY grade! It is my own little “communist” school (can you tell I’m bitter?!).

Everyday I think about dropping out so I can just reapply to another school that has a program I like MUCH better – but it means that I will not be able to start for another year (don’t want to be doing school stuff while we are overseas!). This program I am currently in is a good program at a good school….just not for me. For right now I am really determined to ride it out and just remember that these are the stupid “core” classes. Once I begin my actual role option it will be much different! If I manage to make it through this semester AND take 3 classes this summer (I’m crying just thinking about it!) I will be 50% done with my degree! This way I can take the fall semester off while we are overseas and still finish within 2 years! Say a prayer for me that I pass all my classes AND don’t have a mental breakdown! I am so lucky to have an amazing husband who puts up with my stress levels and crazy mood swings! Love you hunny! 🙂

A small update on our travel plans! We officially sent off the application for our RN license in the UK! There are still 1-2 more steps before we can receive them but we are making progress! It took us a little longer than we would have liked because they needed certified copies of our birth certificates and marriage license, and since we don’t live in the states were were born/married in we had to send off for copies through the county clerk in those states. I have a feeling we are going to run into this type of problem a few more times before we are done! We are now just waiting for a call from our recruiter saying that the nursing board received them! Once we hear from her we have to pay the application fee (145 pounds each) and then wait for more paperwork that we will need to show exactly how much schooling we have had! They need a lot of information about schooling so I am not looking forward to getting that information all the way from TX! Luckily we are still in touch with several amazing instructors so hopefully they can help if needed!  😉  

As the weeks go on I am getting more and more excited about the move! I am also getting kinda scared/sad though! It is finally starting to hit me that we are going to be LIVING overseas! Eeek! Culture shock to the extreme! I am just not looking forward to leaving my friends…again. The first time was hard – and it still is….I can’t imagine this is going to be any different. All I can do is hope every single one of them comes for a visit (I mean it guys!!!) 🙂  Luckily I have an amazing amazing group of friends that I know I’m close too no matter the distance! And its only a year right?!

Well that is all that is going on for now! I have one day off before I am back on for three so I am trying to hit the books and get a little bit done! My goal for tonight: Finish my theories powerpoint (which I have to upload audio files of me “teaching” the subject!!! I have no idea how to do that! Uh oh!). Wish me luck….