Lavender Kay

I am so proud of Jonathan today!  I am always proud of Jonathan but I am especially proud today.  He is the most amazing man and I am so thankful for him!

Photo taken by Ben Blood

My husband is a fourth year medical student and for the past year he has been applying and interviewing for residency programs all over the country.  We have been on an emotional roller coast for most of the year waiting to find out what program we will be placed in and what city we will move to.  The road to residency is a complicated one.  You have to go through a match program and how it works is you rank your programs from most to least important and then you wait to hear which one you get!  And you aren’t even guaranteed a spot!!  You find out on a Monday if you match and then you have to wait until Friday to find out where you match.  We having been waiting to find out our match for months and today was the day we were sent the email.

I tend to be an anxious person by nature so I knew from the beginning that this experience was going to be crazy for me.  My journey through all this has been interesting because the outcome of the match would drastically affect my life but at the same time, I am not the one interviewing and flying all over the country.  I have been extremely involved in choosing locations but I am not the person they are choosing to hire.  It is completely out of my control.  Although this process has been such a wild ride, I am so lucky to be going through it with Jonathan.  He has been so wonderful and I deeply appreciate him.

With all that said, we received the email at 9am today and Jonathan successfully matched into a PM&R (Physical Medicine and Rehab) residency program!  I am so proud of him.  He has worked so hard and I am so excited for this new adventure in our lives.  I know he is going to be an amazing doctor and I am so happy to be on this journey with him!

Happy Friday everyone!  The sun is out and I can’t wait to go play in it!  Jonathan is picking me up in a few minutes and we are going to have lunch in the park before I head into work.  I hope everyone has a great weekend!  This is a photo from Anthropologie and I posted it because it is such a lovely spring room.

Source: anthropologie.com

Source: weheartit.com

This is how I felt today!  The sun came out and it was so warm.  One of my good friends came over and we went on a walk to the park with the beautiful sun shining down on us.  Afterward we made some yummy hot cocoa and sat on the side walk in the sun.  We both agreed that we felt like we were kids again and all we needed was some sidewalk chalk. In that moment I felt like time stopped.  All my worries seemed less important.  People were out walking their dogs and the birds were chirping.  It was wonderful.  This makes me excited for summer evenings filled with walks around our neighborhood, barbecues, flower picking and strawberry lemonade!

Source: flickr.com

Ever since I married Jonathan, I have been addicted to donuts!  Jonathan has a love for donuts that is amazing.  I found this photo on Pinterest and I think it is magical.

roma

venice

praque

ireland

amsterdam

paris/notre dame

aix en provence/southern france

Oh how I miss Europe.  Lately, I have been thinking about Europe every day.  More specifically, I have been thinking about France every day.  It might be because my sister and her fiance are planning their honeymoon to Spain right now.  And I am so excited (and jealous) of the amazing adventure they are about to take.  It is going to be spectacular!

Above is a random assortment of photos from my trip.  Every place we visited was life changing and I would be lucky to go back to any one of those countries.  But today I would do anything to go back to France.  Whether it is the cobble stone streets, the crepes (amazing!), the beauty, the laid back culture, the fresh, outdoor markets, the wine cafes in the street, it is all amazing.  Ok, now I am conviced–lets go!

Last week I had coffee with a friend and during our conversation we started talking about thankfulness.  She was telling me how important it is to remember what we are thankful for and how she tries to write down at least one thing she is thankful for every day.  I think this is the most wonderful idea! This is something I do every year at around Thanksgiving and as cheesy as it may sound, it is always very helpful and meaningful for me.  And I think it is important that I reflect on what I am thankful year around rather than just once a year. 

My goal is to keep a notebook and write in it at least one thing I am thankful for every day.  Lately, my anxiety has been higher than usual as Jonathan and I go through this stressful time waiting to find out about our future.  I find myself worrying about the future all the time and meanwhile, I am letting my life pass me by!  I want to enjoy every minute I have left in Spokane.  I want to remind myself of all the wonderful things in my life past, present and future!  Here’s to thankfulness!

Today I am thankful for fresh flowers and my wonderful husband.

What are you thankful for?

Source: photo taken by Jefra Linn  and posted on ohhellofriend

I posted this picture in honor of our decorating party tomorrow.  Holly and I are planning a little decorating party to get some of the wedding decorating projects for her wedding done.  We have to start kind of early because I have work later in the day so we decided Holly would get the coffee started and I would bring some yummy donuts.

The reason I posted the fabulous sparkle picture was because a lot of our projects include sparkles!  A couple months ago Holly and I went to a decorations store in town and stumbled upon an aisle of sparkles.  Honestly, it was one of the prettiest sights I had ever seen.  There were large jar of everyone color and size of sparkles that you could imagine.  We picked out the colors we liked and took the jars up to the counter to be weighed for our specific purchase.  And ever since we picked out the sparkles, I have been dying to start our project.  I won’t tell you exactly what we are doing with the sparkles so that I don’t spoil the surprise but I am sure I will post some pictures later.

Happy Friday everyone!

I don’t know about you but I am so happy it is March!  This means we are getting closer and closer to spring.  I can’t tell you how much I miss warm weather and sunshine!  February in Spokane has been so odd this year.  This week we have had two snow storms and this month we have barely seen the sun!  But I have high hopes for March.  It think we are all in desperate need of some vitamin D!

Here is a list of a few things I am looking forward to this spring:

– Holly and Jeremy’s wedding!

– Finding out where we will be living for the next few years

– Participating in outdoor activities again

– Budding flowers

– Picnics

– Jonathan and my neighborhood walks

– Sunshine (of course!)

– Jonathan’s graduation from medical school — I am so proud of him!

– Holly’s graduation from Whitworth

– Iced coffee

Happy March everyone!

Here are a few pictures that gave me inspiration today.  I have found that beautiful spaces bring creativity and inspiration into my life.  Sometimes when I am working on a project and need help thinking outside the box, I look at beautiful pictures to help me.  I am always more creative when I am in an inspiring space and when that isn’t possible, the next best thing is to look at pictures of inspiring spaces.  The pictures below brought sunshine into my life today.  I hope they bring you some as well.

Source: stylizimo.blogspot.com via theprettyblog.com

Source: thedecorista, via browneyedbellejulie

Source: puregreendesign.blogspot.com, via Pinterest

I have been working on Holly’s wedding invitations and I am getting so excited about them!  The theme for Holly’s wedding is a vintage carnival theme (genius!) and it is going to be fabulous!

I was excited to design Holly’s wedding invitations long before her and Jeremy were engaged.  Once it became a reality, I started to put a bunch of pressure on myself for the invitations to be perfect (surprise, surprise :))  and then didn’t get anything done at all!  I was just waiting for a burst of inspiration and it wouldn’t come.  But I am happy to tell you I got my burst of inspiration and I am so excited about them.  I can’t wait to share them with you but I will have to wait until we mail them because I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!