Say Goodbye!

I finally get to say goodbye to my glasses and once again reunite with my contacts! Three months ago I went for a routine eye exam and I was told I had a pannus- meaning a growth of blood vessels (not to be confused with a different definition, a large flap of fat that hangs over the belly) in my left cornea. This is bad. Blood vessels are not supposed to be in the cornea. They only got there because I wore my contacts for WaY too many hours a day and for WaY too many days in a row, thus depriving my cornea of precious oxygen. The only way for the blood vessels to go away was to stop wearing contacts for a while so that oxygen could flow freely to my cornea. So today my optometrist said my cornea was pannus-free! I thought I might have to switch to using hard contacts (ouch!) because I was told they might be the best option, but I was pleased to hear I could still wear soft contacts! Yay! Even though I kinda got used to wearing my glasses, I still don't like to wear them every day because mine aren't that cute, they have coke-bottle lenses (my eyes are pretty bad), I don't like to exercise with them, they get dirty so fast, and they move around my nose and make my nose sweaty! So to prevent a sweaty nose in my future, right now at this moment I am taking a vow to take very good care of my eyes, and I also take a vow to get LASIK someday (soon I hope)!!

I finally finished it

It's nearly midnight and I have to wake up really early for work so I really shouldn't be posting a blog right now, but Josh is on-call tonight and I seem to stay up late when Josh is on-call. So the best thing to do would be mindlessly browse and post blogs, right? :) In an earlier post I mentioned how I started making an apron, well it's finally finished! I think it's rather cute. It's reversable, but I think I like the striped side best.
Ok, now off to bed!

Girl's Camp

Last week I was lucky enough to go to girls camp with our stake! I always loved giong to girls camp as a youth, and I found it's pretty fun to go as a leader as well! I went as the camp nurse (which I did last year too), but there was a shortage of leaders so I did double duty and was a 4th year leader also. There were only two 4th years who came this year (yes, our stake is quite small compared to the huge stakes in Mesa) so it was a piece of cake. And our stake here is different than mine growing up in that the 4th years don't camp away from the main camp, and they don't even do an overnighter under the stars! They get it so easy here! But then it's easy for me too, so no complaints. We managed to make it through the week without any major health crises, which was also a good thing. It only rained a little, and everyone seemed happy overall, despite the 3rd years who woke the camp director up in the middle of the night because they thought they saw a tiger-- which turned out to be just a small, white domesticated cat who belonged to the camp owners. The thing that made camp greatest for me was staying in the health lodge. This means that I was the only one who got to sleep with air conditioning! I did feel a bit guilty the first night, but when I realized everyone else had to endure sleeping in a puddle of sweat from the yucky icky humidity, I didn't feel so guilty!

The coveted health lodge, notice AC unit to the left. :)

My two lovely 4th year girls, Abby and Laura

We got to climb an awesome rock wall!

Skit night

You can't really see it well in this picture, but their shirts have the camp theme. It was B.O.O.T. camp: Bringing Out Our Total selves physically, mentally, spiritually.

2 Year Anniversary!

I should have written this yesterday but I forgot to. Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary from the day we arrived in Chicago!! It took us 3 days to travel the 30 hour drive from Mesa, AZ. I can hardly believe it's been 2 years, time has really gone by fast. We love our little apartment and it's location, we love our Neighborhood Hyde Park, we love the ward we're in, we love living by lake Michigan, we love the greenery and all the trees, we love downtown, we love the food, and we love the people here!

I've been thinking about how much our life has changed since living in Chicago, in big and small ways. I thought I'd make a list of things I experience in Chicago that I didn't Arizona.

1. I use window AC units instead of central air (I'd love to have central air again!)

2. I parallel park on the street everyday, and I've gotten pretty good at it!

3. We don't have a doorbell to our apartment, we have a buzzer and I get to talk to people from our apartment and buzz them up.

4. I walk on really squeaky wood floors in our apartment. I've learned where they squeak the most and try to avoid those spots.

5. I can walk to my dentist or my eye doctor in about 5 minutes.

6. I can walk to work if I want.

7. I can walk to the grocery/produce/drug store as well as several restaurants.

8. I walk to church (our building here is actually closer than buildings I went to in Mesa!)

9. I ride the bus.

10. I own a snow shovel and actually use it.

11. I find myself saying 90 degrees is hot!

12. I own more long sleeve shirts/sweaters/jackets than short sleeve shirts.

13. I wear long sleeve shirts in the summer time on occasion.

14. I use an umbrella.

15. I cook on a gas stove and have to manually light our oven.

16. I've learned what the terms "houseshoes," "housecoat," "washroom," "hafta use it," and "babydaddy" mean.

That's all I can think of for now.

Getting crafty

I have this whole "craft corner" in my apartment that doesn't get used all that often. So today I decided to make some more use of it! I conveniently position it towards the TV so I can multitask and watch my favorite shows or any Netflix movies we might have. :)

This past year I went to a card club once a month hosted by a friend in the ward. Everyone who went would make enough cards to give to everyone else (we always had a theme of some sort) then we'd trade our cards (and rave about everyone's talents and abilities). Then we'd also make 2 new cards using techniques we learned that night. It was quite fun! I'd come home with such a variety of cards. Since I've developed quite a collection I haven't had to buy a card from the store in quite some time!Card club takes a break during the summer though because most of the members move somewhere else for the summer due to internships, etc. Since it's been a while since I've made any new cards, I decided to make some today on my own. I think they turned out pretty cute! :)

While I was on a roll with the craftiness, I decided to start making an apron. A friend made one and said it was pretty easy so she let me borrow her pattern. I've wanted a new apron, so I thought "what the heck." I really don't know how to sew very well though and I've never made anything from a pattern, so I hope it turns out ok. It's still in the works. But today I went to Joann's and spent forever trying to pick out cute fabric that would work. It's reversable so I had to find two different but matching fabrics. I finally found some and got to work on it. So far I've just cut out some of the pieces. I'll have to post the final product when I'm finished!
Also, I've been dog sitting for a neighbor/friend so I've gotten to play with this guy all day.

His name is Deebo, he's a Beagle/Basset Hound mix. He's so cute and a real good dog. It's also been fun to have someone else to talk to and play with while Josh is gone. :) It's hard to have a dog in an apartment though. I would need a yard before we got a dog. But when we do get a dog, I want a Beagle, they are definitely the cutest!!