nature | Living My Full Life

Hey there. Sorry I haven’t blogged much lately. My life has been busy the past few weeks. Busy in a good way, though!

What’s going on in my life:

1. School started.
2. I’m getting married in June.
3. Jimmy and I need to buy a house or rent an apartment by June.
4. Work is busy. My dad’s real estate business has a huge open house extravaganza coming up in a few weeks.

After a pretty low-key summer break, I feel like my head is spinning with all of the things I have to do in the next few days, weeks, and months. I’m so happy, though. Over the moon happy. And excited for everything going on in my life right now!

This semester will probably be my busiest semester ever for a few reasons:
-I’m the president of the student newspaper club and the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper. So many responsibilities.
-I’m completing my senior research project this semester.
-I’ve got a few tough courses on my schedule… like mass media law. Oh boy.

My motto? One day at a time!

Some pictures of my life lately…

My family’s house is a zoo.

People keep thinking that I have two sisters. Nope… that’s my mom in the middle.

I’ve been enjoying what’s left of summer as much as possible.

I met a bald eagle at Pittsburgh’s aviary. It was massive!

Lola and Brandy are best buds. And I love coffee. And bright flip flops.

Well, that’s about all I have to say for now.

I should probably get back to working on my senior research project. I’m doing a content analysis of the Livestrong Foundation’s response to Lance Armstrong’s admission of doping in January 2013. It’s an interesting topic, but the actual project is hard work!

Have you ever completed a research project? What was the topic?

Heeey there! It’s been about two weeks since I last blogged… weird! It’s also been about two weeks since I deactivated my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. During my little hiatus I learned a lot about what’s important to me in life and how I feel about blogging and social media in general.

Why I took a break from blogging and social media:
-I wanted to strengthen my relationship with God.
-I wanted to truly focus more on important relationships in my life.
-I felt like my blog was becoming too “me” focused and selfish.

How I felt:
-At first I felt almost panicked, like I was missing everything going on in the world.
-After a few days, I felt very free because I wasn’t “available” 24/7.
-It was amazing to spend less time staring at my computer and phone.
-It was also great not to read blogs and compare myself to others (I know I have the choice not to compare myself to others, but I often feel like it happens almost automatically for me).
-I felt out of sorts at times because I was so disconnected from people that I regularly talk to via blogging and social media.

Other thoughts:
-Spending less time blogging and using social media helped me become a better listener and gave me more free time to do things for others.
-I’ve learned that social media/blogging can be great, but can also take my attention away from more important things in my life if I allow them to.
-I’m struggling with feeling like I must have a blog or Facebook account in order to connect with people and learn about what’s going on in my friend’s lives. Ugh.
-I’m likely going to be reading blogs and blogging a lot less. I want to blog on my own terms–for the enjoyment of it instead of feeling like I have to document every aspect of my life and keep up with every blog out there.

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Whew, it felt good to get that off of my chest!

So, what have I been up to for the past two weeks?

Vacation Bible School at my church was great! I worked in the kitchen and Hannah and I were puppeteers.

I competed in a sprint triathlon and placed third in the 19-29 age group.

I harvested zucchini from my garden, Jimmy and I made chocolate chip and raisin zucchini bread, and I began working for my parent’s real estate brokerage (more on that in another post).

I bonded with Hannah and Felix and went swimming at a local lake.

And last but not least…

I had my wisdom teeth removed on Friday morning.

My dentist told me to have them removed a few years ago but I kept putting it off. They started hurting me earlier this week, so I went to the oral surgeon on Thursday and less than 24 hours later I was in surgery. The doctor said my something was wrong with my heart during the surgery, so I have to see my regular physician on Tuesday to figure out what’s up with my ticker.

I’ve been laying around on the couch eating soup and jello and popping lots of Advil. It’s nice being babied by Jimmy, too. We rented Despicable Me last night and it was such a cute movie! Here’s to hoping I can heal up quickly with no dry sockets!

What’s going on in your life?!