The Start of My New Journey

It's crazy how life leads you down a different path from where you thought that you would be. Just like the saying goes, "If you want to make God laugh, just tell Him about your plans." Well in my life, He allowed for me to entertain my dream of being an architect for just a little while. Several years of focus and dedication, and a couple years of practice. And that is it. Apparently, that is not the journey I was meant to be on.

I have come to accept the writing on the wall. My architectural career is over, and it's time to move on. To say that it is bittersweet, is quite an understatement. On one hand it's sad that a dream of mine has died. I had wanted to be an architect since I was 12 years old. I worked my butt off for it, achieved it, and lost it. And what kills me is that there isn't anything that I can do about it. Thousands and thousands of architects are in the same boat as I am. And it's three years later after the economy crashed. How long are we supposed to wait?

{This is not meant to be a pity party. A vent, yes, absolutely.}

Before you feel too too bad for me, the last three years have been wonderful. I got married, we moved into our first house, and we had our amazingly beautiful daughter. And I have had the awesome fortune of being a stay at home mommy to her for the last fifteen months. 

So what is in the works now?

I have started school again to become a nurse. Yes, you have read that right, 180 degrees different from architecture. Am I crazy? Maybe. But I am excited about this new start and a chance to help people and to be apart of something that is bigger than myself. If you were to ask me right this second what part of nursing I would like to go into (did you all know that there are 80 different types of nurses?!), my dream would be to be a Labor and Delivery night nurse.

As scary as my birth experience was to me, I had the most incredible bunch of nurses that calmed me down so that I could enjoy the first moments of my daughter's life. I would love to be apart of that team now being on the other side and help mothers and mothers-to-be with their birth experience.

As they say, "having a baby changes everything".

Stay tuned for my experiences in college again, it's a lot different now that I am not 18 anymore.

Georgia Aquarium

What a whirlwind of a weekend! We were finally able to take our little one to the Georgia Aquarium.  My hubby and I are huge fans of aquariums and it has been one of our things to do together so we couldn't wait to be able to take Emily.

She had the best time! Constantly making her happy sounds and grinning ear to ear. Absolutely nothing brings pure joy than seeing happiness on a child's face. It melts your heart.

 

{These pictures do not do this place justice.}

The Aquarium was amazing and very different from other ones that I had been to. Most of them have a direct circulation through the exhibitions one right after another through the space and when you got to the end, that's it. At the Georgia Aquarium, you enter into the central common space (after security and all of that) and then all of the different exhibits branch off from that. You exit from an exhibit right back into the lobby. Therefore you get to pick and choose what order you see everything, and if you want to go back for a second round, you can.

Another big difference is that they put their money in big show stopping exhibits instead of several small ones. And I mean BIG. A 6.3 million gallon tank, the biggest in the world.You want to talk about impressive, it is an absolutely amazing site.

How cute are these sea otters?

 Mommy and baby!

Pull "Car" for a toddler

How can you beat a crafting project that uses stuff from around the house and makes your little one happy? And mommy gets to have a little crafting fun during nap time. Sounds like a win-win to me!

Here is very simple pull "car" that was made from a empty diaper box, one of my husband's old ties, patterned duct tape, scrap fabric and a plastic bowl that we never use. The only thing that I purchased for this project was the duct tape. Not bad! (Little girls have to have pretty duct tape, right?)

I simply wrapped the box with the duct tape. One suggestion would be to not put the duct tape right on the edge because as you would pull the box across the carpet, it will roll the tape. (see picture below) Three flaps of the box are folded down on the outside and are included in the wrapping. I went as far as the one roll of tape would allow. The one flap for the "steering" was left free so that I could attach the steering wheel.

Take an utility knife and cut a slit on the fold of the free flap so that you can loop the tie through the handle opening and your cut opening. Tie a knot.

Drill a hole through the middle of the plastic bowl. Attach with a washer on the back. Liberally cover the back with lots of duct tape so that there is no way the washer can come loose and pose a problem for your little one. (I used just regular duct tape)

Tack down the last flap with some tape and take a permanent marker to add some buttons. Lay some scrap fabric on the bottom of the box to make it more comfy.

Use a permanent marker to name your child's new toy!

Try not to wake up your child even though you are really excited to see if she likes it. My little one is still out of it! But I still took her for a ride around the house!

Project cost: $4.99

Vroom, Vroom!

Fortune Cookies

Don't you get excited when you get a cool fortune cookie??

The hubby and I finally had a date night tonight movie and PF Chang's. Side note the movie: The Campaign, very funny. Crude, but funny. Everything you expect from a Will Ferrell movie.

Anyway, how cool is this fortune? My immediate reaction is "heck yeah, let's go!"

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Olympic Fun

Have you guys been enjoying the Olympics? Each time the Olympics come around, I try to learn a new sport. Back in Vancouver, it was curling. Man that was a neat sport! I got hooked even to the point of downloading an iPhone app for curling.

This time, I watched a lot of beach volleyball and then making my best attempt at water polo and horse dressage. Some of it I get, and some of it I do not. Water polo for instance, I get that it is a lot like soccer, hockey and basketball. Mix them up and throw them in a pool, and that is about the extent of my understanding. There were too many whistles but the players were not stopping for them, so I don't understand what they were for.

Beach volleyball, not hard to get addicted to. I got caught up in Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings. Did you guys watch them at all? I had no idea that they were such a powerhouse for the sport. And the gold medal match between two USA teams! What a win-win! Even though Misty said that she is definitely done with volleyball, Kerri is starting to look for another partner for Rio 2016.

Horse Dressage, that was interesting to watch. I was amazed at how a horse could move to a piece of choreography with minimal instruction from the rider. My husband called it "horse dancing" which sounds silly, but is actually what it looked like.

Did you guys know that there was women's wrestling? Men's field hockey? And how is it that they get rid of baseball and softball, but BMX bike is a sport?

Well, I have to admit, I have enjoyed having lots to watch on TV these past couple of weeks between all of the channels that were broadcasting the Olympics. I feel like I watch enough of the Americans compete that I did my civic duty! lol What events have you guys enjoyed?