Life Lately {vol. 44}

Quick kisses on our way to do errands!

Mom, Dad and I watching J graduate! I love my family! :)

The happy (and very relieved) graduate and I after the ceremony!

Eatery A has the BEST pizza I have ever put in my mouth - I would probably kill for their mushroom, truffle oil, and egg pizza.

My dad, J and I checked out West End Salvage for the first time and fell completely in love!

I picked out my wedding dress in Des Moines while I was in town!!

After meeting with a potential wedding planner and before going back to Iowa City (right before the drive back to new Hampshire), J and I went to Exile Brewery for the sole purpose of getting truffle fries. We don't have a truffle oil obsession or anything...

We were sooo close to being back to my apartment, but J and I decided to stop by this overlook in Vermont that he always begs to stop at. It's a beautiful view and he's a cutie, so I don't usually mind. :)

Setting up the apartment was so much more fun once I found some Magners in the fridge!

We changed which room our bedroom was in, and I set up this gallery wall with some of our favorite pieces of art!

My parents got J (and me, hehe) a Keurig 2.0 for graduation!! It's beautiful and works sooo well! I love the bigger pot too, which works perfectly when you really need more than one cup!

I think he wants to believe... ;)

J and I made a quick IKEA trip to get a desk and a huge shelving unit for our bedroom... but ended up skipping the desk, getting the huge shelving unit, plus some odds and ends for me. That colorful thing is a lap desk that I've honestly needed for the past few years of law school. No idea why I didn't buy one sooner!

I had a few days before I started work for the summer, and I can't say how nice it was to wake up in my own bed, with both the cats, and with the love of my life next to me. Even though the apartment was a mess, waking up like that makes almost anything negative seem small and trivial. :)

Leif is such a cute sleeper! I love how much he loves the sun. :)

J and I ended up buying a grill for Memorial Day and having a few friends over for hot dogs and brats! Not only did we learn how to work a charcoal grill all by ourselves, but we had great company during it!

TWO CUTIES. :3

I started work at NHLA almost two weeks ago, which seems crazy! They have mugs we can use downstairs, and this cat mug gives me life.

Oz and J are ridiculously handsome dudes.

J and I have been walking everywhere around town on the weekends in order to get our Fitbit steps in, and we came across this bright green caterpillar!

I was having a rough, emotional day, but I came home after work to a present from J: My favorite (I mean it, I'm obsessed) Christmas CD on vinyl! He found it at the record store in town and got it for me out of the blue. Surprise presents are my favorite presents, especially when they're so thoughtful!

James couldn't be cuter if he tried! :)

Life with this cutie is full of giggles and weirdness and silliness and I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Weekend Goals Forever

I decided to grill dinner the other night, so I marinated chicken breasts in lemon juice and zesty Italian dressing. HOLY. COW. They were sooo good! Definitely something we're having again soon!

J, Andrew (and his and Abby's dogs, Zooey and Oz) and I went for a hike on Mount Major last weekend! This was us at the top - relieved, exhausted, and so grateful to be done with the hardest part!

Well, what we THOUGHT would be the hardest part. Zooey hurt her foot pretty badly on the way back down, and refused to walk anymore when we were only about 0.25 miles from the parking lot. J, Andrew and I all took turns carrying her down the mountain.

The view from (almost) the top of the mountain!

J and I and Zooey (all looking pretty silly) at the top of Mount Major!

At Starbucks the other morning, they were giving out samples of s'more frappachinos! How adorable is it?!

Our second gallery wall is up and running! This time it's in the "playroom," where we're keeping the tv and games.

Sleepy Leif just kills me with cuteness!

Fun coffee mugs at NHLA forever. :) My job really is amazing. Without making it a blog post on its own, I feel so privileged to be helping people who really need it. It's really opened my eyes to conditions that I never had to deal with because of the privileges I was afforded. It makes me so grateful, so humble, and so determined to do good in this world!

I haven't been working out consistently anymore because J and I don't have a "schedule" down yet since he's still looking for a job, and I've been feeling so grumpy and bloated. Instead of whining about it, I decided to take J's advice and actually do something about it! So I've started working out in the mornings again, and I already feel better!

Yesterday, J and I decided to go for a walk in this giant cemetery in town! It seems so dark and macabre, but I love looking at the really old headstones. I love thinking about who these people were, their lives, their hopes and dreams... and I love discovering fun old names!

I started work almost two weeks ago, and it's been surprisingly difficult for me to be productive when I get home in the evenings. I feel like I always start out my days with this drive to get things done, and by the time I get home, I'm just so tired! I want to eat chips and greek yogurt, read my book, and go to bed. I don't want to do laundry or write blog posts or clean the apartment. 

I mean, I go to bed around 10PM every night (especially since I've been waking up early to work out), and I get home around 4-5PM every day... which means I have 6 hours, tops, at home to cook dinner and get things done. Thinking back on those words I literally just typed, I'm realizing how lucky I really am, because there are plenty of people in this city, let alone this world, who have the same amount of time but HAVE to do so much more.

I hope everyone's week's been well and you're enjoying the summer weather! Have a happy, fun, not-too-productive weekend! :)