Blurbs Pictured

While it's certainly daunting to find the words to share the past five or so months as a newlywed with you, I have pictured here some highlights. Our lovely home we have the pleasure of caring for, my mischievous husband I have the blessing of loving, and the two cuties we adopted.  Factor in my work as administrative support to the children's program at our church and my growing involvement at Everyman Theatre, and the results are exciting and very full days.  To be continued.  

Memoir of Firsts: Snow Day

I value sleep, especially on a Saturday, but was I ever glad I made the most out of this Saturday. Nathan and I took the aforementioned books to our house and then spent all morning working on our respective projects. I fussed with curtains and cleaned the stove, he fixed a three-way light switch (one of his many successful wiring repairs in the house! Hunny is an electrical guru now :)).

One of the best parts of the day was the snow that was falling when we pulled up to the house, and how it continued to fall in thick fluffy flakes as we worked away the hours. I kept all the blinds and curtains open so that I could stop and gaze out whenever I pleased. It made the blooming of our new little life seem extra magical. There is something I've always wanted in the kitchen: a big window above the sink that overlooks our backyard. I discovered we have a robin couple along with other birds who come to frolic in our back yard.

Whenever I'm at the house I seem to have the urge to redecorate our fireplace mantle. Since I've never had one of those either, the possibilities seem delightfully unending. Today I added what you see in the picture. It's past meets present really: a slice of cedar, the first gift Nathan gave me over three years ago. Resting on it, a tree ornament Mom gave us this Christmas.

Hoping for more snow days filled with cozy moments for us all...

Happy New Year, friends!

Memoir of Firsts: A Dinner Guest

This a shot of how I set the "table" for the inaugural dinner guest in our house. Until a few days ago Nathan and I didn't have a dining room table set up. So when we had the first dinner guest a few weeks back, I was determined to somehow still make it special. After an evening of home repairs with our good friend, we ordered a pizza and bought paper plates and cups. With candles lit, Christmas music via Pandora playing, and sitting on the floor around the coffee table, we ate and laughed and talked. Nothing else would have felt more perfect...

Until we all heard a very loud crash that sent the guys running around the house armed with tools and flashlights; a funny sight that lightened an intense moment of fear for me. We never did figure out what caused the noise, and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

Merry Christmas Eve! Hope you're making lots of new and nice memories in your own abodes.

A Month of Progress

The wedding planning has made it's way into a completely organized binder! (With tabs and a business card holder.) We started out with a much smaller binder I was gathering information in, but our planning progress quickly outgrew it. Knowing our love for this type of organization, I'm surprised it took us this long!

New Things

I just realized I can blog with my new toy/grad gift - iPod touch! It replaces my beloved iPod I lost a few months back, plus giving me the capability to do much more away from the computer.

Commencement was last Sunday for the 2012 class of CCBC. It was personally an incredible day! Enjoy a couple pics.

(I'm nervous about the formatting of this post. Yay for trial and error!)

Tree Castle

I was reminiscing a bit tonight, and particularly enjoyed this photograph.  This enchanting structure is at Longwood Gardens.  It was one of the many magical things we explored together on the day Nathan proposed.  I remember suggesting that he build one just like it so we could live in our very own castle.  :-)

New Roles

I thought I would have moments of regret or sadness during S.A. rehearsals.  Even though I've briefly stage managed before this, I couldn't quite imagine myself sitting contently by while other actors worked with the director to create their roles. Surprisingly, I've enjoyed every minute of my week of note-taking, report-writing, and schedule-keeping.  This is going to be a thrilling two months. :-)

In mushy news: I still get a little flutter every time Hubby-To-Be asks me out on a date. :-)  I'm looking forward to our weekly date nights this semester!  I also get really excited every time I picture walking down the aisle to become his wife.  Like wanting-to-jump-from-my-skin-with-happiness-excited.

I like learning about how love is an attitude AND a choice.  Earlier this week we had some wedding-centric conflict, caused mostly by mutual stress.  Within a day, the conflict was resolved with kindness and compromise, and left me loving him and how he cares for me more than ever.  I'm striving to remember that no detail of wedding planning is more important than respecting each others' feelings.

[September] Obsessions

This month's obsession is not a person, place, or thing.  It's a mindset. 

 I'm actively working on being the strongest, healthiest, most accomplished, most confident version of me I can be.  This little cartoon kind of puts it into a lighthearted perspective.

via weheartit.com

[August] Obsessions

I didn't want to skip a month in my Obsessions series, and I have something to share with you!  Clearly, this blog has occupied some of my obsessive attention this month.

I've wanted for some time to make significant changes to it.  It has had the same widgets, the same look, the same general everything for the past year.  I had also come to greatly dislike the name, the one I gave it almost three years ago.  I'll probably be in college for a few more years as I transfer to a university, and the title seemed to put limitations on my blog's longevity and topics.  I don't write just about college, or theatre, which were the things I originally envisioned being the theme of my blog.  Plus, I just felt a little ridiculous saying "Debbie: The College Years" out loud. :-p

The truth is I may not be in theatre forever.  I may start "the married years" while still in "the college years".  Anything can happen, I've grown, and I want to continue to take my blog with me.

So if you look around, there are some changes.  The name, quite obviously.  I brainstormed for awhile trying to settle on something cute and descriptive for a blog that would have no identifiable theme, except well, my life!  I owe the clever dude behind Why Men Can't Cry for "Deb's Blurbs".

The design (though similar to the old one) and the pages are all new.  Everything is purposefully simplified and organized.  If you look to the newly-placed sidebar on the left you will find only the archive (called "Blurb Catalog") and my labels ("Blurb Guide").  My brief profile is at the top under the title, and I wanted that to double as a quippy welcome as well as a description in place of the old one.

The things I write about probably won't change much, except that I feel a new freedom and excitement in what I share with you.  So, visit for a few minutes and then tell me what you think!  I'll be back to regular writing sometime soon. :-)

"Boom, Boom, Boom"!

Sometimes I'm loathe to admit I enjoy as much popular music as I actually do.  Because let's face it, what's typically gracing the top listed on iTunes isn't usually creative or soul-stirring music.

This song is no exception; it's not brilliant.  But it sure does cheer me up! :-)  I've been singing it a lot lately.

Also, I think I'm obligated to like a song called "Firework" considering how much I LOVE them!  Now I feel like blogging about fireworks and all the good memories I have of seeing them...but I think I'll save that for another day when I need another post about cheerful things. :-)

credit

Summertime Playtime!

To me, picking strawberries, cutting flowers, and taking pictures qualifies as playtime. <3

This is a wild miniature strawberry plant I have in the back yard.  And isn't the gold and sapphire ring lovely?  It was my mom's.

Lovely colours.  The blue and white vase is one of my favourites!

Oh and...I have feet and legs again!  This time last summer -even up to a few months ago- everything up to my knees excluding my toes were wrapped in bandages.

I'm not quite ready to go out beyond my home in leg-revealing clothing (too much scarring) but I'm sooo excited and grateful none the less to be getting my ivory skin back!

Life Collage

Falling back onto an old favourite because everything currently on my bulletin board is some kind of awesome.  

The poem from the closing night of Bat Boy, with a personal note from Carl. Next to it, one of the "happy/angry" masks from the show. Also, a copy of the program signed by my cast mates.

Souvenirs from Seattle and the convention.

Pictures- of inspiration, of my Love, of a little girl whom I have the blessing of sharing my blessings with.

Program from the gorgeous show I recently saw.

Valentine's Day card from my mom.

And little bits and bobs that amuse or delight me, all on the background of lovely vintage wallpaper.

Currently Loving Everything

I secretly get annoyed with bloggers who don't update their blogs for weeks at a time, return to apologize and lament about not updating, and then repeat this process three or four more times as their blog dies an obvious and drawn-out death.  Or they may claim to be "taking time for themselves" and promise to return to blogging.  As I said to Boyfriend and fellow-blogger the other day, "Hiatus is a slow and painful death."  So I won't be doing any of that nonsense.  I think you should update as much or as little as you wish and not apologize for it, because it's your blog! :-) I've been writing on here significantly less, but it's mainly because I was brain dead from the show and busy and happy with my offline life, and I don't need to apologize for any of that. However, I still love blogging, love reading blogs, and appreciate my friends from real life and my interwebs community that read my little old blog.  You rock. :-)

photo cred

I'm currently on spring break and enjoying every second!  I'm spending it at home, but I've had plenty of travel and busyness the last few months to be perfectly content with my own stomping grounds. I got my hair and nails professionally done, so I'm looking extra fabulous.  I saw West Side Story and it was every bit as wonderful as I hoped it would be.  Already been to the mall several times and bought a few new items to spice up my wardrobe.  Gone out for meals and mall-trolling with various friends, and had dinner and drinks with Boyfriend.  Sleeping as much as I want, sitting around in comfy clothes, and generally being lazy without feeling guilty about it.  There are lots more things to come, and Easter to celebrate!

I've taken pause several times to thank God for how healthy and happy I am these days.  Contrasting this years' spring with the last one is humbling and makes me incredibly grateful.  If you've been along for the journey longer than a year or so, you know how grateful I am to be enjoying sleep and food and a pain-free body.  How grateful I am to be enjoying lovely clothes and being pretty close to no longer hiding my skin from the world.  I'm honestly about to tear up just typing this because I am so grateful.  I hope to never take the things I am finally enjoying for granted ever again, and to always carry the strength, faith, and perspective the last several months has given me.

Wages and Stages

cred to bro for my new picture :-)

It's late on Sunday night (it's actually Monday morning) and rain is pounding pretty hard on the roof above me.  I just finished my FAFSA filing (deadline is in less than 24 hours-OOPS!) and did my taxes.  The amount of money I made (or didn't make :-p) in 2010 is depressingly small...

I had a busy weekend, but only Sunday was legitimately enjoyable.  On Friday evening and most of the day Saturday I was House Manager for a dance show at the college.  Working this event knocked out a good portion of my required lab hours for theatre stagecraft class.  I enjoyed working with the technical director/my teacher, but all in all it wasn't where I wanted to spend my weekend.  Hence my late evening, and cramming my entire weekend's activities and personal to-do into one day.

We had an awesome worship service at church this morning with Regi Stone, followed by an announcement from one of our pastors that he is moving on to minister at another church.  While I am happy he has been blessed with new and bigger responsibility, I was surprised and saddened by the announcement.  He is someone I have consistently gone to for prayer and exhortation, and I will miss the caring spirit he extended to me.

After church Boyfriend and I stuffed our faces with Chipotle (Thank you Niki, for introducing me to the burrito bowl. :-D)  Then we hit a mall, because I had a yearning to buy a new dress.  I got two; one casual and one business-formal.  Maybe I'll have some pictures soon.

Before we headed home, I enjoyed a nice glass of Riesling at Ruby Tuesday.  It's my favourite wine!  Then we watched the Oscars with my family.  I thought it was a good show, though the energy seemed low.  Anne Hathaway and James Franco were cute together, and I appreciated the Academy's attempt to reach out to younger audiences.  So many stellar-looking films were recognized this year, though I would have preferred Christopher Nolan and his "Inception" to have received more recognition. 

I feel kind of drained.  Later today is the start of a typical busy week, but trying to sleep so often brings more frustration than rest.  I'm tired of looking at the state of my living quarters, so I'm going to leave iTunes on shuffle and tidy up until I pass out.

<3

P.S. Yes, I know I complained about my income in the beginning of this post, and then proceeded to mention all the things I spent money on today. :-p

A Perfect House

"Frodo was now safe in the Last Homely House east of the Sea.  That house was...'a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or storytelling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all'.  Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear, and sadness."

After weeks of being pursued by fear, plagued by worry, and pierced with a deadly wound, Frodo Baggins found temporary respite from his journey at the House of Elrond.

There are two places that are my "homely house"- my church, and inside a sincere hug.  May we all find a place on our journey that takes away our weariness and comforts our fears.

(Quote taken from "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien)

Winding Down

The more I have to blog about the harder it is to catch up!  Coming soon are some posts about the theatre festival I competed at and the play reading I was in!

This evening I kicked back with family and Boyfriend to watch the Ravens-Steelers game; a very rambunctious event considering my parents are Steelers fans and my brother and I are home team loyalists!  Lots of yelling and moaning and insulting and Facebook updating (or tweeting, in my case) occurred.  I'm disappointed that the Ravens didn't come through for us, but hey, it's only sports!

I'm sleepy. :-)  and so thankful for a relaxing evening after all the recent commuting, rehearsing, and excitement.

Austen on Adobe

Through Jane Austen Today I found out that sourcebooks.com is offering free Austen novels and Austen-themed novels in honor of her birthday!  I downloaded "Persuasion", "Northanger Abbey", and "Mansfield Park" only to realize that I didn't have the proper software with which to enjoy my free treasures.  Then by clicking around some hints on my computer I found Adobe Digital Editions, downloaded it, activated an account, and viola!  I am in the digital age of reading.  I'm usually rather timid when it comes to making modifications of my computer or experimenting with software, so I'm proud of myself at the moment. :-)

I prefer holding a book in my hand when I read, but I'm willing to give this a try!

From Thespian to Thrifter

"Anarchist" is wrapped (that'll get its own entry).  My birthday has come and gone (that'll get its own mention too).  Here I sit at work on a rainy Tuesday, back in my normal routine, and I'm surprisingly quite content.

I need the work hours so badly.  Thanks to rehearsals, my forthcoming paycheck is horrifyingly small.  I also need to study my butt off for the remainder of the semester, otherwise that math final is going to sneak up and ruin my life. (Actually, ruin my current college career.  So basically the same thing.  No joke.)

Yesterday I spent some time with Michelle working and thrifting.  I'm now sort of an adjunct employee of Lemon Meringue Thrift and Gift...we have a flexible arrangement that allows me to sell items and get free stuff in exchange for helping with pick-ups or organizing the store.  Honestly, at first touching and cleaning other people's used items grossed me out, but upon reflection I think I'll gain an appreciation for it.  Especially since it means having a new hobby, a little extra income, and time with one of my best friends.  Already I made $30 off an old electric keyboard, and picked up some clothes and a bureau organizer!  I'm currently sitting at work in a cute and comfy sweater dress I picked out from the Lemon clothing rack.

I'm getting back into reading and commenting on your blogs.  Is anyone else interested in participating in the Thirty Day Challenge with me?

Me > Monday

I'll just say that yesterday was a Monday in all its unpleasant and obnxious Monday-ness.  It had me grumpy and worried and not feeling well.  But a few things made today very bearable:

-Working one-on-one with a lovely student actress, and watching the transformation that took place as she found a connection to her character.
-Learning to sing the soprano part of "Carol of the Bells" in acappella choir.
-Having a dinner out with Boyfriend, whose conversation and company never fail to delight me.

So take that Monday.  You may have had me down, but you'll never have me beat!

Hold Please

Today my skin was healed enough to wear a dress and tights and heels for the first time in many months.  Today I was a practicing assistant director and dramaturg.  Today I accidentally killed my cell phone.

Today was a good day.