New Digs

We are officially moved in to our new apartment! We've done a lot of packing, cleaning, moving, unpacking, and more cleaning, but we are finally here. There are still tons of boxes to unpack and furniture to organize (yippie!), but I feel really good about our progress. I'm pretty exhausted right now, so I'm just going to give you a sneak peak of our place. Here you go!

The front door

The back door

Back of the building

The "backyard"

But I'm Better Now

I just discovered something wonderful, and I'm so excited about it that I need to write this down before I forget! "It" is the song Better Now by a band called The Vespers. I downloaded their album for free a few weeks ago on Noisetrade* but I am just now getting a chance to listen to it. When you hear this song, you will almost immediately think of Nickel Creek (another wonderful band), get warm fuzzies, and then smile, knowing there exists another band that is rocking this sound. If you're not familiar with either of the bands I just mentioned, I will describe them like this: folk, soulful [female] vocals, banjo, acoustic, worship. Honestly, what could be better?

Warning: if you actually watch the music video and listen to the lyrics, you might get a little teary-eyed (like I just did).

Oh but I'm better now
Why do you shake your head no
Oh and I met a man
Oh and he saved my soul

*To download their free album for yourself, click here: http://noisetrade.com/vespers.

Farm Fresh

One of my newest finds in the city is the beauty of the farmers market. I always heard about farmers markets from friends, but for some reason, I thought the main point was to walk around and see interesting and bizarre foods. However, I have recently learned that the point is, in fact, to buy produce fresh from the farm! If you've never had farm vegetables before, you definitely need to try it. I don't know if it's all in my head, but I can't help feeling like a better person for eating farmers market vegetables. There's something about buying green beans still connected to the branch (stem? leaf? What is that called exactly?) that makes me feel a slight Laura Ingalls Wilder vibe that I love. My hubby and I don't feel a strong urge to eat only organic/natural foods, but now that we know we can buy fresh veggies for cheap (which also taste delicious!), we are big fans. 

A couple weeks ago at the farmers market, we accidentally doubled up on green beans and cucumbers. Luckily, we were motivated to eat them all. :)

And this week, we invested in fresh basil and tomatoes. So my hubs made margherita pizza!

Well, that is all for now. I just wanted to give a shout out to farmers markets everywhere. Now that we are moving to the city (in one week!), I'm sure I will be exposed to many other new things that might show up on this blog. Hopefully, you will enjoy them too!

Have a great weekend!

H

City and Colour

Lately I've become somewhat of an obsessive YouTuber. Not the kind of YouTuber that watches videos about British children biting their siblings, or kids going to the dentist, or worst of all: kittens. Rather, I've realized that I greatly enjoy watching music videos and discovering new artists online - and apparently YouTube is the new VH1.

My method is this: listen to Pandora at work, hear a new song that I like, look it up on YouTube, become a little obsessed, and find a new favorite artist! It's quite a fun hobby. :) 

A recent new find is the artist called City and Colour. The band consists of a guy from Canada (Dallas Green) who writes and performs the music. Here's his website: http://www.cityandcolour.ca/. I don't know a whole lot more about his personal life, but I am totally digging his sound. I think he sounds like a folky, more whimsical Iron & Wine. And honestly, I tend to get a little bored with Iron & Wine, so this is a refreshing change. Check it out.

Come on, Canada, share the love!

H

This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

Happy Wednesday, friends. I'm so glad there are only two days left in this week. For starters, work has been CRAZY busy lately, and I am quite stressed out. I can literally feel the tension in my shoulders at all times. If I was the kind of person who got massages, this week would probably be the time to do it. Or maybe I should take a bath - you know, in that fancy sparkling bathtub provided by apartment complexes everywhere. Oh wait. :) Anyway, the stress is mostly due to the fact that I am currently learning some new skills at work so I can fill in for a co-worker who is going on vacation next week. My position is already split into two separate roles, and now I'm just throwing a third into the mix. Why not, eh? Sometimes my brain just really hurts.

On a more positive note, I'm really excited for this fall. I'll be taking my first graduate class starting in September - it's called Principles and Methods of Evaluation. You probably just dozed off reading that title, but I am super pumped. If you know me well, you know that I'm a true nerd at heart, and I especially love research and evaluation. So this is right up my alley! I'm hoping that this class will help me decide if I want to apply to be a full time grad student and pursue my MA in...get ready...Quantitative Methods in Education. Yeah! It's all part of my master plan to become awesome and start my own non-profit consulting business. Details to come. Of course, knowing God, He will most likely throw something totally wild my way to teach me to trust Him more, and I will end up pregnant with triplets at age 25. (Note: I am not pregnant.)

Well, that's all for tonight, folks. I know this wasn't the most interesting blog post, but I'm home alone, bored, and there's no Olympic gymnastics on tonight to entertain me. I will leave you with my current jam: Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men. The video is really weird, but the song is great. Enjoy.

H