christmas decorations

okay, okay, i have been meaning to write in this for a really long time and i will, but for right now when i have only a few minutes before dinner, i will leave you with this. 

i'm home (in florida) now for break and since we don't get much or really any change of seasons down here, people go a little crazy with their outdoor christmas decorations. don't get me wrong, i LOVE everything about christmas and all the holiday that surrounds it, but i just don't really understand the need to cover your lawn with blow-up snowmen, tacky lights and a plastic Jesus, Joseph, and Mary. Anyways, we have new neighbors next door that don't seem to feel the same way. I've watched over the last week as they have added more and more to their yard and I have to admit, I do enjoy seeing it as i round the corner to come home. tonight though, my little brother, teddy, rode his bike home from a friends and told me i had to come outside. the neighbors had made a new addition....

lights that blink in coordination to christmas songs. 

yep, their light-up candy cane fence and all the lights on the house and in the yard, blink on and off to the tempo of the song that is blasting from a speaker somewhere in their yard.

that just took this all to a whole other level. 

one more thing

oh wait. one more thing i wanted to do. 

i have been favoriting about a million things a day on etsy lately, so i'v

e compiled my favorites of my favorites. so here we go:

i think the picture on the left bears some resemblance to jared and i, but he doesn't think so . his response when i showed him a little while ago was, "maria, were not asian." whatever, i still like it. 

               

maybe i'll just get this and then we can look alike. 

       

sunflowers and moleskines. best combo ever. 

bad blogger

i'm really trying to be a good blogger, but I just have just been so bad at it lately. and the longer i wait to write something new, the more i feel like it really need to write something impressive and i get somewhat intimidated. 

it has been so rainy this weekend, but i really love the rain so that's alright by me. 

we have a new urban outfitters downtown, so jared and i went yesterday. i really wanted to start confidently wearing scarves, but because there is not much occasion to wear them at home in florida, i've never really been a scarf wearer. anyways, i got one yesterday and i really love it. i decided that i want to dye my own scarf, because of this that i made last year:

this is kind of a weird picture of it, but it was a sample for a project from last year that i did:

there is a website online, dharma trading company, where you can buy plain white shirts, scarves, bibs, pretty much anything that you would want to dye or embellish. soooo, i ordered some scarves and i think i am going to dye it in the same pattern as above. i don't think i have time to do them right now, but i figured one school was out for break this month, i would have fun doing that. 

school is so crazily insane right now. i'm just really not enjoying it, and i'm having a hard time deciphering how much of it is i just need to push through and how much is that it just really might not be for me. i just don't know. 

but for tonight it's dinner and go-karting. zach, allie's boyfriend, is in town and i think we are all going to do a little racing and mini golfing. 

thanks

oh my. 

this school year. the last 4 weeks have been pretty overwhelming. i'm not very good at not getting consumed with stress. it kind of seems like its either no stress or way too much unhealthy stress. but i'm trying. 

in the mean time, i am taking allie and jared home with me this weekend for a big surprise 50th birthday party for my dad. its going to be so great. i have so much work to do this weekend, but i'm just not going to let that get in the way of an amazing weekend. 

i don't really have much to go on right now. i just need to decompress from this week. 

but for now, i am just really thankful for these two people. and for that matter many more. 

but for purposes of being a refuge from crazy work loads and maybe even more, from myself

so here we go, look at these two little cuties:

(allie and i now have a collection of really cute aprons in order to try and become more domestic. here is an example of two)

oh and here's wall-e and i at disney world. i just love this little guy:

all things new

well friends, its way past time. 

i've been dragging my feet long enough on switching over and creating a new blog and its now time to actually commit to one. i spend enough time reading other people's blogs, that its only fair that i have one of my own. 

i really can't believe that we've already come to the end of the summer. i feel like i was just on the other side of this summer, waiting for it to begin, and both fearful and excited for what the summer would hold. some of my thoughts about what this summer would be like came to be, but even more, most of them turned out to be nothing of what i would have expected. 

this summer required discipline and growth of me, of my heart, of my relationships, of everything. im admittedly pretty horrible at both of these things, so its also required a sufficent amount of forgiveness and grace. it hasn't been the most glamorous process, but i have to hold on to the truth in Hebrews 12, that "11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.12Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed."

i'm just getting a little taste of just what might be that peaceful fruit of righteousness, and its exciting. there are so many exciting things right now, but we'll get to those a little later, when its their time. 

other than that, here are a few more things that i discovered this summer:

1. i have an intense love for wii mario kart. i started off pretty horrible at it, but i am getting better. im also the sorest loser when it comes to this game, which both teddy and jared, but mostly jared, can attest to.  

2. lost is the absolute best show ever. i have watched every single episode this summer except for the last three of the fourth season. so don't say a word. 

3. thanks to jared and i guess mostly the elevation worship band, i have listened to this song about a million times over the last few days. i just love it. 

4. my family is crazy. in the absolute best way. i love them and i have loved every minute being home with them. 

one more year. one more crazy, stressful, exciting, challenging year.