Why Hello, July

Wait. Where did that month go?

Or maybe the more accurate question would be, "wait, where did that blog go?"  It got lost in the day-to-day whirlwind that is preparing for the fall.  So I present to you, in five parts: Our July. It turned into a multi-theme month that is cultivating a lot of good habits.

FLYing all the way home

July has been a "get-the-apartment-in-order" month, Flylady style.  Yes, the bane of our existence growing up who was always making us throw away old toys has been this month's theme as we prepare for our move.

It's been great.  Not only is the apartment in apple-pie order, but we've gotten rid of so much junk.  All those baggy clothes, old t-shirts in excess, single earrings, kitchenware that we have duplicates of, all those ratty old college twin bedsets - gone.  Woohoo.  I even got Josh to part with his terrible bright yellow and red tie.

Plus, we're practically packed for the move. Everything we're not planning on using in the next three weeks is packed away, labelled, and color-coded by room.  So this is going to be a pretty easy move, I think, and all because we're spending ten minutes a day on preparations.

Returning to my first "love"


I compiled my book list for "books to get through while Josh is in grad school".  There's about 90 books on my list, and so far this month I've read three.  Currently I am working on "The Little Prince" in Spanish.   After the post-college burnout, I read a little bit, but not a whole lot.  Now I've remembered what it is to love reading again, and to spend hours curled up with a book.  And Josh is reading right along with me!

Staying fit and having fun


Each day we are spending 15-20 minutes working out.  Three days a week this means cardio workouts - running, roller blading, ultimate frisbee, tennis.  The other days it means strength training + easy cardio - walking, cleaning, etc.  But the rule is to not let them be a "workout", but to be fun.  We're playing tennis during our lunch break once a week, and now we're hitting the trails on roller blades on weekends.  :)

A surprise improvement

Since I was about 9 and running track, I have always gotten a lot of headaches.  I blamed this on computer time, allergies, sleep deprivation...all of the above.  I never in a million years suspected dehydration, because I drink a lot of water.  I carry a water bottle with me at all times and sip from it all day, drinking almost nothing else. For the past three years, I've been drinking the recommended amount of water of 64oz. a day - in fact, a little more.

So I thought my headaches weren't related to dehydration at all.  But then early this month, I decided to drink until at no point during the day I was thirsty. If I'm thirsty, I drink until I no longer want anything to drink.

On the first day, I drank three liters (~101 ozs).

So for a week, I put three rubber bands on my water bottle and took one off each time I drank a liter.

NO HEADACHES!

All that time, I thought I was getting enough water because I was drinking the "recommended" amount.  Turns out my body needs more water than that - just like it needs more sleep than the average person (yes, my body wants 10 hours of sleep to be truly happy).  Now I'm drinking 3-4 liters a day, and I feel so much better.

So the moral of the story is you're probably dehydrated right now.  Go drink some water.

A new era

Josh and I made a commitment that for the first year of our marriage, we would intentionally avoid making too many commitments and instead really focus on intentionally getting to know each other. And that year is over. It's been wonderful.

Josh starts grad school next month and we'll have less time together.  If that had happened last fall, I feel certain our marriage would have been much less fun.   I will miss him like crazy on those nights he is gone, but at least I know we had a fabulous year where our first priority was simply to get used to being married.

August: the Demise of the Photo Faker


So yes, Mom, I'm a photo faker.  Maybe it was growing up with a mom who has a camera bag permanently attached to her shoulder.  But I don't take pictures.  Ever.  If something noteworthy happens, someone else has a camera, right? And they'll post them on facebook, because that's all people do with pictures now anyway.

Next month, my theme will be to take a picture a day.  And to post it.  So it will be a blog post a day. Another two-fer.  :)

That's all for now!  A nice long post to make up for not posting ever.  :P

Change of Plans...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention...the music theme was scrapped within a couple days and the Josh theme is in.  Which means that this month, I am working on learning/experiencing more of Josh's hobbies and tastes.  This includes but is not limited to:

-reading Zorro
-learning the game he plays with his miniatures (lotr based, of course)
-probably learning to play Battlestar Galatica
-watching the Cosby show and Muppet clips
-etc.

You might call it getting in touch with my inner nerd/adventurer.  We might even pick up Star Wars from the library.

Anyway, the change due to a lot of news that we received all in the same week and that is causing considerable stress to Josh.  Therefore, I'm trying to help him be distracted/relaxed at home in the evenings.

In other news:

-we will be moving late July/early August.  Possibly to West Virginia (barely, but still.  Yay car registration and new licenses).  Where we will go, we're not sure, but we are definitely going to move, and definitely moving out of our current town.

-no scholarships have come through yet - please pray that the necessary funding for grad school comes through.  We have two and a half months to come up with the first semester's amount.

-the required course, which Josh was told last year he could transfer in b/c the professor teaches the class both at our alma mater and Josh's grad school, cannot be transferred in.   Therefore, he ended up adding a class (only offered in the fall and a pre-req to most of the other classes) to his schedule and will be in class on MTW from 6:30-9:30 next fall, after an eight hour workday and before a 1.5 hour commute home.  This will however, hopefully be the last 3-class semester.*

*We are appealing to the professor to convince the registrar to let Josh transfer it in.  Pray it goes well...

-in preparation for a move (and to get all our we-hate-making-decisions-but-have-to-do-it energy out), we performed a massive purge and our den is now 1/4 full of stuff we are selling/giving away/throwing out.

And that's all for now!  We're both doing well, and actually...now that we've gone through the purge, we're both excited to move (we're ready to move now!).  And this is really the first time we've had to make the tough decisions as a married couple, so I feel like it's been a worthwhile growing experience. :)

Pray for Josh

Tomorrow  night he goes to an open house at the school he wants to attend for his Master's.  He'll be going to night classes, so this is a trial run - he'll take the metro in.  Pray that everything transportation-related will go smoothly so we know what to expect come fall when school starts with his commute.

Pray also that he'll get home early enough to get a good, restful night of sleep because...

...his GRE is on Saturday.

So much for being done with major tests.

We've both had an incredibly draining, eventful, and head-spinning sort of week (yeah, you'll probably hear more about that later - I'm in hyper-preparation mode, so I have a one-track mind and it will probably come up), so we do covet your prayers for this weekend.