pa-tooey

I will not name names. But I've been wanting a pair of oxford flats and I bought some. And then I wore them to work. And to my class. About town and such. (P.S. about the shoe at work thing-- making your knee to toe area lab-approved year round is a for real challenge! Try not having ANY leg showing and ANY foot showing year round. Not easy.) Anywho, back to the not naming names thing. SOMEBODY said, "Oh, interesting shoes..." and then a minute later said, "So wait, are they guy's shoes?"

And to that, I say pa-tooey! (You know, like the spit sound. To show your disapproval.) Pinterest agrees with me that Oxfords are cute:

Heritage

I read blogs. Lots of them, and I've been reading them for a long time. And I see lots of engagement pictures and wedding pictures. But an engagement shoot on the blog Oh Lovely Day caught my eye today. Not so much because of the pictures themselves (although they are cute!), but because it was from the Lithuanian countryside (See it here!)

I'm 50% Lithuanian. My mom's a purebred and my dad's a mutt. I was forced to join a Lithuanian folk dancing group in high school for two years (don't worry, I ended up loving it!) I got to actually GO to Lithuanian during the summer between my tenth and eleventh grade year. It was awesome and fun. We folk danced in a gigantic festival and I got to go all over the country with relatives- some of whom I had met once before and others whom I have only met once.

 

 My Great Aunt (Grandpa's sister) at her one room farmhouse with an "outkitchen" so she didn't overheat the house when she cooked in the summe (see below). She had cows and a cellphone. And a lot of life for a little old lady.

  A cousin or relative of some sort, Karolis. He was my interpreter for when I was with my relatives.

Trakai castle.

 Paintings that street vendors sold of Lithuanian scenes.

 The above outfits are really medieval Lithuanian outfits, the below are the more traditional ones.

 Relatives and friends

 The Baltic Sea!

Sinusitis

Sinusitis is a fancy word for a sinus infection. Which is what I think I have. Because typing "what is a sinus infection?" into Google is the equivalent of getting my M.D.

Yes yes, I'm a bona fide doctor. (Sidenote: I typed bona fide into this post as one word and it wasn't thinking bonafide was a word. So it suggested "debonaire" in its place. It also doesn't recognize bona fide split into two as being legit either. But yet again, Google comes to my rescue and says "bona fide" is totally legit. Thank you, Google, for reaffirming my grammar legitimacy and teaching me about inflammation of the sinuses.)

All I know is that my sinuses are burning and sometimes it looks like I'm crying. But I'm not. I'M NOT CRYING OKAY? I also know that trying to be an adult and go to work despite the fact that you don't feel good is hard work in and of itself. AKA I should have gotten paid overtime for today.

But alas, the following things can relieve even the most watery-eyed, inflamed nasal passage-afflicted girl:
1) My new Kindle (That Seth got me for Christmas.) Because I can read the Bible on it. And The Hunger Games.
2) Tea
3) Tissues
4) Vitamins and Mucinex and Ibuprofen, all laid out for the next morning on top of a note that says "And kisses from Mom!"
5) Baths. Baths that I take after taking those pills. Baths that I take while I read my Kindle and drink my tea and blow my nose. Those are good, good baths.

A handmade gift

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My lovely friend Cheryl loves to draw. I love to make things. I also love to be thrifty. Thus I made her a pencil roll wrap for Christmas out of fleece. It was easy and cheap and fun to make!  Got the idea for it from this post. Fun jazz!

 

Open it up and unroll it...

 My cuts didn't exactly make a perfectly straight line. I'm awesome at life.

Even pup approves.

What I did on New Year's Eve (a tad belated)

I believe New Year's Eve is the most phenomenal holiday. I didn't always think that, cause you know, it's no fun to be 11 and hanging out with your parent's friends and everyone is half asleep and struggling to hold a conversation by 10:30. But it's all good. The past two years I have hosted a party for my friends at my house.

Last year's theme was J. Crew. We basically got dressed up and had fun. I dunno if you could necessarily call our looks J. Crew, but style is in the eye of the beholder I suppose.  We danced to that Wii game Just Dance. It's really funny to me cause we don't drink a lick of alcohol and yet we have a blast. Sidenote soapbox: Don't get drunk to try to have fun. I've been sober every day of my life and I've had some pretty good times. And I can actually remember them. These are photos from 2010 --> 2011

2011 --> 2012 was awesome too. Maybe even more awesome. We did a Mad Men theme. I don't even think any of us watch the show, we just like the classy 60's ensemble. A side theme was classic game shows (you are about to be treated to a few photos of me wearing a ridiculous Vanna White dress.)

We played Jeopardy, The Price is Right (with the white elephant gifts we brought) and The Newlywed Game (hilarious considering not everyone there was a couple.) We basically had a blast through the wee hours of the morning. View yonder photos as proof:

Stick on mustaches added to the classy level (or made Seth look like a sleazy car salesman)

Awkward family photo

The engaged couples.

Jeopardy

Nothing's more hip than a sparkling cider toast at midnight

I have awesome friends (who apparently do not know which way to hold letters)

The proposal

So Seth and I started a wedding website/blog. It is not quite finished yet (read: 95% not done.) However, the ONE page we have completed is the story of the proposal. So hop on over and check it out!

We have only been engaged for 2 weeks but he is the sweetest fiance ever and we were so thankful to spend this Christmas break together (I dropped him off for his Megabus trip home this morning- sad day). Now comes the fun part, planning, planning, planning, perchance some slight freakouts, and excitement. Oh and planning.