Young, Wild, and Free

Sometimes my husband and I agree to take the night off. Tonight is one of those nights. We ordered pizza, pulled out the carton of ice cream, and watched Avatar and League of Legends. We're probably going to stay up too late and not clean up after ourselves. Irresponsible? Yes. Fun? Very. While we do have obligations and responsibilities, our lives will only get more pressured from here. While we're procrastinating homework and unloading the dishwasher, it's a lot easier to take a night off from life now than it will be in five or ten years from now. So junk food it is!

This week, I had six classes canceled. For anyone who doesn't know how college works, having that many classes canceled in one week is unheard of. Professors being sick, out of town, or just wanting to not teach gave me a lot more time than I normally have this week. I took the chance to sleep in when I could because I've been having trouble falling asleep lately. I got a lot of my homework done, cooked some yummy meals, designed my future house, and listened to an audio book (Son by Lois Lowry--very good). But I still had too much time on my hands. It's weird to be bored. I can only refresh pinterest and facebook so many times and keep my sanity.

This week helped me to realize I need a new hobby. I got a lot of great suggestions from facebook. Thank you to all who gave me ideas. I've decided to be brave and attempt something I have very little skill for--sewing. My mom, Grandma, and sisters are all great at sewing. I, however, spend more time at a sewing machine undoing stitches than I do making them. I'm pretty sure trying to sew a sleeve in middle school caused me trauma. But I want to be good at sewing, and now, I might have enough emotional stability to handle needle and thread without my need for perfection getting in the way.

Anyway, I decided that I'm going to plunge in head first and attempt a project that's probably out of my league. I'm going to sew a stocking. I learned this past Christmas that Stephen's family and my family have the same kind of stockings. Bucilla has these adorable felt stockings with several patterns and designs. Out of my family's nine children and Stephen's eight, not one of the stockings are the same. Without any coordination, this is as improbable as having six classes canceled in one week. Because it is a tradition on both sides, I want to make Bucilla stockings for my future family, and with my skills in sewing, starting now is not a bad idea. I found a pattern that neither sides of the family have used yet (miracle, I tell you) and I'm going to order it and attempt to carry on a family tradition.

In other news, I got my hair cut today. I hadn't cut it since before I got married (btw, happy six months to us this past week) and I wanted to get rid of my dead ends. I only cut like, two inches off, so no one freak out. I still have ridiculously long, thick hair. I did do something different by not getting layers in order to make my hair styles easier. So we'll see how that goes. I will donate my hair someday, but not yet--it's too much fun still.

I got my hair cut for free because of our coupon booklet, so that's always a perk. I tried out a new place, Aveda hair school, and loved it! I've gone to many different hair schools for cheap cuts, but this was the best one I've been to. They gave me a scalp and shoulder massage with essential oils, massaged my head again with a wash, cut my hair quickly, and even styled my hair by giving me some really beautiful loose curls. It also took less than an hour, and for a hair school, that's impressive. I will definitely go back (especially because I have two more free cut coupons). Without the coupon, the package would have been ten dollars. I would pay ten dollars just to have her massage my head again. Ah, so good.

Speaking of massages, Stephen has been giving me a lot of massages lately. What a champ. I did something to my back the other day and now it is full of knots and tension. Every few hours when we have time, Stephen will try to massage away my pain, though it often feels like he's just creating more. It's the good kind of pain, don't worry, and I know it helps, but I think he doesn't know his own strength sometimes. For being a computer science nerd, he's got some strong muscles.

Yeah, I can't write a post without gushing about him. Deal with it.

So, Stephen got his tax return, and we decided to be responsible with the money...well, most of it. We're taking this chance to set aside some money that doesn't come out of our monthly budget to buy things that will take long to budget for. For instance, we got a new TV. Unnecessary, sure, but Stephen really wanted a TV that wasn't from the 90's, so we searched on craigslist and found a nice one for cheap. We bought it from a poorer family who is trying to get enough money to send the dad to school, so we felt good about giving them the money rather than Wal-Mart. We're also putting money aside for a new laptop for me. Mine is physically falling apart, though I love it dearly. I'm going to use it until I can't, and then we'll get me a new one with some of the tax return money. We added money to other saving funds like paying off the car loan, buying furniture, and stocking a 72-hour kit for me, so not all of the check is being spent recklessly.

Now, don't worry about our careless habits. This note is especially to our moms. We promise we're behaving like good students and citizens. We wash behind our ears and brush our teeth twice a day and everything. But nights off, slow weeks, and extra money brings out the side of us that makes us question if we should really consider ourselves adults. I think we're just two crazy kids in love, and you know what? I'm not complaining.