oh hi

Hello again, friends. Here's a random selfie I took to Snapchat my sister a few weeks ago, just in case you forgot what I look like.

It's September. It's September and I'm not ready for it to be September. The autumn decorations are out too soon at Target and internet friends are posting too many wishlists of sweaters. Let's be real: in Texas, I don't think fall comes until like November and right now, I'm okay with that. Let's enjoy these 105 degree days while they're still here and maybe go for some late night swims to rejoice in the fact that we don't freeze our buns off when we get out of the pool yet.

August was quite the month. That list of bold intentions I posted last month has been conquered. I finished grad school with a bang, devoting a few weekends entirely to schoolwork and coming out with a 5/5 on that thesis. Hell yeah. Ben finally came home after a month at his New York base and I was weirdly nervous when I picked him up at the airport. The butterflies washed away the second I saw him and we've been getting into our new groove the past few weeks. We're in our new home, finally, and as I predicted, IKEA and Target have become our second homes as we set this new place up. It's not done, but I love it so far. Settling in and making new places ours is one of my favorite things to do.

You guys don't really care, but work has been crazy. That's the only word for it. Students moved back two weeks ago and since about a week before, it's been utter pandemonium as we got ready for them and now as we all settle in to this new building. 398 students live in this residence hall and I'm in charge of every single one of them plus the operations for the whole building and a student staff of 25 college kids. If that's not a lot for a first job, I don't know what is.

I don't know if you've heard yet, but I'm pretty much a kickboxing pro. While this is not entirely true, I have been asked if I'd like to be an instructor. After a roundhouse kick and a hell yeah, I started training for that and have some more training to do before I go live. The job pretty much consists of wearing a Britney Spears mic, punching things, and bossing people around, so I'm a natural. To be completely honest though, it was such a blessing to be asked. Ben and I had just decided that we couldn't really afford my membership once he started school, and then the next day, they were like hey, do you want to get paid to do this instead of having to pay? I'm thankful. Plus it feels pretty awesome that they saw something in me that made them want to ask if I'd join their team. I knew I wasn't doing all of those push-ups for nothing.

To sum everything up, life is good. I'm in a really good place right now and my sweet Ben is forever at my side. He's happy at his new school with his nerdy engineering classes and I'm proud of him for going back to school for another degree when he could have just forced himself to stay in a field he wasn't happy in. We're continuously learning to serve each other and are both trying really hard to love each other more than we love ourselves. Marriage isn't the easiest thing around, but it sure is worth it. 

Speaking of marriage, my husband is still cozied up in bed being a lazybones on this thunderstorm-y Labor Day, so I'm off to make him some coffee and a bagel and get that boy out of bed. I hope all of you have a nice day off!