Life lately according to my iPhone

It's the final countdown. Nate's officially completed 80% of his internship, leaving him with roughly 2 weeks left. Meanwhile, I've been twiddling my thumbs down here in Texas, trying to keep myself busy at work every day and at home by myself every night. 

Here's a little look at what my summer has consisted of thus far:

Sending workout selfies to my husband. It's fine. Muscles are cool and stuff. 

The first month was the absolute hardest. We caved and bought two round-trip flights for me to go up and visit him. This was the first - spent mostly in Panaca (Nate's hometown 2.5hrs from Vegas). It was wonderful.

Shameful selfies at work. Cause I was wearing polka dots aaand a braid. It was a big step.

We have the greatest friends here in College Station. I honestly wasn't expecting to make such amazing friendships while Nate and I were here for two years of school. It's only been one year and I feel like we'll be in touch with some of these familes for the rest of our lives. They're so awesome. This is Sailor. She's 3 and she acts like she's 16 and she's one of my favorite people in all the land. I like to color with her and feed her lots of sugar >:) 

This is cute Nathan with some of our favorite nieces :) They live in Southern California and Nate was nice enough to go down there and help them move a few weekends ago. They love him because he takes them out for breakfast burritos and donuts when he comes to town.

This marked part 2 of 2 of my trips to Vegas this summer. I had July 4 off so we took full advantage of the long weekend. My flight got in at 6:30am and I've never seen that airport so empty in my entire life. Usually it's a mad house, but the only person I saw was the cleaning lady in the bathroom downstairs!

We had to wait an hour until the place we wanted to go for breakfast opened it's doors. So we sat in the car and giggled at each other until it hit 7:30am. It was so nice to finally be able to sit across from him while eating a meal.

We aren't very rich, so we tried to keep ourselves busy the rest of the day without spending lots of money. Part of this resulted in us trying to sneak into the Red Rock Hotel pool with one of our old hotel cards...didn't work. They had that place fully guarded and we felt dumb for trying. But it was actually pretty fun(ny).

The accountant at the hospital Nate is interning at hooked us up with tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show called KA. It was preeeeetty cool. Neither of us had been to a show like that before - I honestly didn't even know where to look half the time because I felt like there was something going on in every corner of the room, but it was thoroughly entertaining, and that's all that matters. Also, very asian. Very, very asian.

We made our way over to Panaca the next day. It wouldn't be a trip unless we went to see Nate's parents. Nate calls this part of the desert 'dino poop', cause that's what it looks like. Duh.

There's this old man in Nate's home ward that always comes up and talks to us (me) and whispers sweet nothings into my ear, except he doesn't really whisper, he talks really loud and makes sure everyone can hear what he's saying. It's quite uncomfortable but the attention is nice...I guess...? I can always count on a good hand massage from him while he's doing it. 

Goodbyes never get easier. I left Vegas that night knowing I'd have to survive the remaining 5 weeks until Nate finishes. Tears were shed. It was embarrassing. Whatever.

Welp - took me long enough to get one of these bad boys. This makes me SUPER official, right? I even get access to THE STAIR WELL. I'm really moving up fast. It's really exciting.

This is what our weekends look like. Woo hoo. I feel bad for Nate cause he definitely has it much worse than me. Once he gets home from work he literally has nothing to do. He doesn't have anyone to hang out with or anywhere to go...so he just hangs out in his little casita reading or watching TV or going on walks, or prepping for the fellowships he'll have to apply to this fall. Poor guy.

This is what myyyy weekends look like. Sometimes. When Sailor is in a good mood and wants to come play with me. Check out her pruny hands - we did some serious swimming that day.

Look at cute Nathan in his hospital scrubs! :) The truth is, he's not technically supposed to wear scrubs for this internship, since he's interning under the CEO - he's typically found in nice business attire. This was a special day where they had him doing manual labor, so his boss sent me a picture of him and a cute text and it totally made my day. Love him :)

And for the most recent news in my life - I found a neglected sweet potato in my cupboard! It was not smelly, but it did start growing pink limbs and it reminded me of my sister's many guinea pigs. So there's that. 

We suck at taking pictures

Remember how it's already almost been like 3 months since I've updated this dang thing? (sorry Ariel)

Not TOO much has happened in this uneventful town that we live in. Finally getting kitchen table chairs didn't keep me satisfied for very long in our little cottage. The cold weather slowly started to creep into Texas and the paper thin walls of our house weren't helping with that. The bugs were never-ending. I got bit by a spider. The bite was on my thigh for a good two weeks - at it's worst, the mark was about the size of my entire hand and then some. Pretty awful. Oh and then there were the scorpions. It became a habit to look into the corners of our house (esp. in the bathroom) before fully entering the vicinity. We had lived there almost three months and we had already killed about 10. One night I was sitting on the floor (no couch) watching TV - my back was up against the wall - and I felt something kind of tickle my lower back. Obviously I kind of swiped my hand back there to relieve the tickle and then all of a sudden I WAS HOWLING IN A PAIN SO SERIOUS it nearly sent me into shock. Mostly it just scared the HELL out of me (it's ok to use that word in this instance) and I started sobbing and Nate was getting all nervous and freaked out and had no idea what had just happened until I started pointing and blubbering at the HUGE SCORPION RUNNING ACROSS OUR TILE. I ripped my shirt off and immediately went to look in the mirror to see what kind of damage was done. Three THREE 3 sting marks!!! The pain was actually pretty awful and luckily Nate is a saint and was a really good soother after such a traumatic experience. (ps. baking soda + water takes the sting out real quick)

Anyways, enough of the terrors associated with the cottage. We quickly put it up on Craigslist, not expecting anyone to come to us wanting to move mid-semester. Alas, we were wrong (hallelujah) and we moved out the day after Thanksgiving into a BRAND NEW apartment complex (talk about drastic changes) with carpet in the bedroom, and wood floors, and central heating, and an ice maker in the freezer, and a FULL SIZE SHOWER/TUB, and a pool+hot tub, and a GYM. The list goes on. And no I will not miss the squawking geese outside my window at 6am every morning, or getting my shoes/heels muddy every time I step outside, or wearing clothes that are stained with the smell of must. And yes Nathan finally let me buy a couch (Craigslist, holla!) that my parents kindly transported from some random man's house in Austin. He also is finally letting me decorate, which is a huge step, because that wasn't really encouraged in our old place. (he found it pointless since he hated it and it reminded him of the crappy houses he lived in in Brazil) So I'm taking full advantage and I've been slowly creating and collecting little things that will make our new house feel more like home.

Before Thanksgiving break came, Nathan's old roommate, Aaron, came to Dallas for some work-related stuff. We took advantage of the close proximity and treated ourselves with a weekend away to reunite with old friends (which we miss having!!) Nate and I both have this app called Hotel Tonight. It finds you cheap, good, hotels based on your location - luckily I still had $25 credit in my account from first signing up (I love perks), so we scored a sweet deal on a awesome modern hotel right by DFW Airport, allowing us to be in the prime spot for a fun weekend.

Unfortunately, that happened to be the same weekend that the awful wet/cold weather rolled in, so that wasn't very nice. Dallas also happens to be one of the most complicated cities to navigate and drive in - poor Nathan was running on no patience with me and my maps app by the time the weekend was over. But we saw good friends, ate some good BBQ, and slept in a place more comfy than our (at the time) home. Nathan even dragged me to a Texas In-N-Out that was down the street from our hotel (not the same as out West, sadly). 

We spent Thanksgiving with my family, which made the moving weekend much easier. And now we're winding down to the last of the semester and we're both very anxious to get a nice long break. Nathan finishes up finals TODAY (lucky) and gets to sit at home doing "nothing" all week next week, since my last day isn't until the 20th. We're spending the holidays in Nevada with his family, so we'll be flying up there next Saturday! I can't believe this year is almost over. This time last year I was trying to decide whether or not I was going on a mission, and now the biggest decision I'm mulling over in my head is what size wedding photo to print out to hang on our wall. HA. Wait I take that back...buying gifts for guys is hard and that's definitely a struggle right now. 

Also another struggle I've been experiencing this week: cutting myself with sharp knives. No, not on purpose - all accidents - all resulting in a bloody mess and lots of bandaids. That's what we get for getting really nice knives for our wedding. The weird thing is that we've had these knives since we got married like 5 months ago and this is the first (well technically third, since it happened 3 times this week) time I've cut myself with these blasted things. Here's a cleaned up/healing version of the first one. (curse you, onions!!!)

So much has happened this year. I've experienced such a crazy whirlwind of change in such a short amount of time...and I have to admit, I'm usually pretty good at tackling big changes...but this was so much harder than I expected. And I didn't take it very well. But I've found that it's usually when I'm in one of my lowest points that Heavenly Father really likes to shake things up and help pick up the pieces. He's always been good at that. Sometimes I don't like that He lets us get as low as we sometimes do, I really think that most of the time, we could be out of the slums a lot sooner if we kept ourselves in check more often. It's more our faults than His. All we have to do is ask for His help. As soon as Nate and I started being more serious about the asking, He came through 110%. He always does.

Right after we moved, Nate called his mom to give her some updates about the new place. One of the first things she said to him was, "you guys probably love each other more now, huh?"

It kind of threw him off for a second, and it threw me off too, when he was repeating this to me. But after we both thought about it, we realized she was right - in a strange kind of way. We always loved each other in the old place, but being in a new, clean, nice apartment has brought on this wave of happiness and joy that we didn't really start off with in our first house. We were always complaining about things, and now I'm always catching Nate smiling as he's pacing around our new place...which makes me SO happy, because he never did that before. Our lives got kind of flipped upside down in a really good way, and we are SO, so grateful and happy for what we have now. It makes us cherish and enjoy each other so much more. I love him a lot.

Also- I just have to apologize for the lack of picture taking that has been going on since getting married. I am ashamed and it will be one of my new years resolutions to get better at it (AKA- force Nathan to let me). Instead, I will post more pictures of Beyonce and her family because she slapped us all in the face with an AMAZING new self-titled album last night. I can't stop watching/listening to it. Love her.

Life is but a dream...

I just stole my title from Beyonce's documentary. And I don't care.

Btw, if you haven't seen it yet, do it. It came on HBO the other day and I was glued to that TV screen for the rest of the night. It was so honest and so real. Like it sounds dumb that I'm caring this much about a celebrity, but it was so inspiring. And emotional. This is one of my favorite parts:

I never realized how spiritual Beyonce is. I've only ever known her as the Queen of Pop, but she's so much more than that to me after watching this. And I think for her and I both, life IS but a dream...but dreams don't always have to be all rainbows and butterflies, ya know? We each have our share of good and bad in life. (yes I'm relating my life to a huge musical celebrity. get over it.) 

  

Nate and I took a little break from our country life and came back into Austin for Labor Day weekend. We finished it off with a successful trip to the lake where we were able to get obnoxiously sore before starting our first week of school and work. Yaaaay. Haha.

 My sweet boy surprised me with flowers after my first day at work, though. I'm not the biggest fan of my job, I wasn't really from the beginning, and knowing that, Nate has made it so much easier with the constant support that he shows. He even makes my lunch everrrry morning. He's the best best best. Not that many people would roll out of bed with their spouse at 6am (or earlier), if they didn't have to. Really I could go on for days about all he does for me. I love him to death.

Like I said, I started this new job. I used to think dressing up nice was like a really fun thing...well now I don't think that because I have to dress nice EVERY STINKING DAY and I'm so sick of it. I just want to wear jeansss. I miss the advertising life :(

 

 

 

I've really been getting into cooking lately. Maybe it's just me trying to "become one" with this new wife role I'm having to take on...but I'm reeeeally enjoying it! It's like the once thing in my life right now that can really make me feel accomplished once I have the final result in front of me. And feeling accomplished is one of my favorite feelings to feel...so it's great.

So far my favorites have been homemade granola, tikka masala and naan, aaaand [baked] banana chocolate chip donuts. seriously they are all making my mouth water just thinking about how delicious they are. Ask me if you want the recipes...I'll happily share :)

Nate and I experienced our first college game day here in College Station. Aggies are NUTS. They're cool and nice...but they are insane. Like...I knew/heard that they're big fans, but HOLY COW. You don't know until you see it. Miles and miles of tailgating. Thousands and thousands of sweaty bodies roaming around campus screaming. It was definitely a day to remember...and one to know avoid (for me). Haha. 

We finally got a couple pieces of furniture! Still no couch- but at least we have something to sit on while we eat meals. They were a steal of a deal at World Market.

Nate decided he doesn't like wearing his ring anymore (because he's scared of losing it). So I just threatened him with this after he left his ring at home for 3 consecutive days...

Don't worry. No baby on the way ;)

The Wild

hi. it's me. long lost zoe. lots has happened in the last month and i think i've been trying too hard to avoid updating this thing.

so i got married. now i'm very bleak.
ok just kidding- that's just my new last name and it's actually pronounced like "blake". now you know.
with that change comes a new shadow. but really that shadow is a human being and his name is nathan. and he's really cool and smells really nice and has great hair. he also likes to wake up really early and so i'm very sleep deprived most of the time.

we spent our honeymoon skipping around vegas and california for a few days. i ate too much food and spent way too much time in the car for our own good. (we made the mistake of leaving vegas on a sunday and it took us 2 hours to drive the 30 miles out of the city. yikes.) but obviously it was awesome finally having time to ourselves after such a crazy summer away from each other. i missed him a lot.

after our not-long-enough honeymoon we had to hurry back to panaca to pack up the uhaul with all of nate's belongings and move down to college station. 1423 miles. 22 very long hours. i was just glad nathan was excited to drive the truck because that meant i didn't have to. the guy told us that it isn't allowed to go over 55 mph. we broke that rule far too many times and i think hit a maximum speed of 85 mph at one point on the trip. oops.

i've spread really nice rumors about the house we're renting down here in college station. i talked of it like one of those picturesque nicholas sparks-type cottages on a quiet lake in the country. well that's exactly what it is, but once you have a realistic man in the picture with you, it all becomes much more real and you start seeing all that is wrong with the place and everything that is missing and needs to be fixed and cleaned and repaired and installed and bought and set-up and on and on and on. my dream, for a while, turned into an awful nightmare, and we spent too much of our time complaining. i've done everything i can (so far) to make our little house into a home and i think i'm well on my way to success. there's still plenty to be done- suddenlink is about to give us a brain aneurysm. we've been waiting for over 2 weeks for internet to come and get installed. oh and we don't have any real furniture. nate eats dinner in his office chair while i continue to cave in the lid to our igloo. desperate times call for desperate measures.

these live next door to us. they're awesome.

more to come on our fun adventure- but for now, i have to go. only because we're in a campus computer lab using the internet and nate is done checking his school email. ha.