pixie

This is the best haircut decision I have ever made. I absolutely love my pixie. My first pixie was kind of a long pixie and I didn't have the best bangs. I didn't care for it and almost gave up on having a pixie. But I decided to be brave and try one more time, only much shorter. Wow. I feel feminine. I feel like a woman. I feel like a new woman. And really, I am a new woman. Sometimes I don't recognize the Hannah from a year ago. She would have never imagined life without a hair dryer and only taking five minutes to get ready in the morning. I have either become more lazy or have figured out the important things in life because I never want to go back to tangles and spending more than three seconds on my hair. I feel light, pretty, and bold. World, meet (new) Hannah.

(I find it is really hard to take a good picture of your hair, apparently no matter how much you like your hair. So here are my attempts.)

Dear Andy

(sidenote: I wrote this on Monday, but I often have a hard time publishing what I write the day I write.)

Dear Andy,

Today I got a glimpse into your life. I went to one of your classes with you. Previously I tried to prepare for the class by reading all the material you were reading. After one chapter I deemed that ridiculous and that I had other things to do with my time and proudly gave up. The one chapter was boring, hard, and gruesome. The other five chapters plus 20 pages of online reading I'm sure would have been worse. Class was okay, if you like dark, freezing cold rooms, and watching me fidget like a five year old stuck in a three hour long class filled with explanations of definitions. And then we departed ways, each of us going to our separate jobs. I wondered how you did it. Every single week, plus two other classes (and this class is your "easy" class) and another job thrown in. Plus, me, of course. I was proud of you before and I knew your life was hard, but, wow. You are the best, my perfect companion. Tonight I will gladly do all the dishes, fold your clothes, and read what I want quietly in my reading corner. Thank you, dear.

looking back and looking forward

It is a new year here for us. We have been here for one year (actually 14 months!). It saddens me and excites me at the same time. I am sad to realize how quickly time does pass in seminary. I am excited that we are no longer new here. We know people. We know places. We are almost kind of settled. It's a new school year and we kind of know what we are doing. It is still summer, so I am not done with my "summer to do list," but looking at it, all I can do is laugh. We had someone else pick blueberries for us. (Does that count or just make us the saddest couple ever?) I went through one of those phases where I felt like I deserved a gold star just getting out of bed (anyone else have those or am I just crazy?) and on top of that I had an upper respitory infection for a month. Andy worked every Saturday so we didn't do random fun things like go to the farmer's market. We still are not moved. I don't think we saved any money this summer (and we're both pretty extreme savers). But we've had fun and went to Disney with Andy's family (the happiest place on earth and I got to feel like a six year old for a week!) and enjoyed beautiful weather and ate some amazing food and found a lot of things we needed for free or pretty close to free. For this last part of summer I want to look forward and focus on big picture things. I want to:

1. be creative and complete this self-portrait challenge
2. read. we are here to learn and lately that is all I want to do. i have a growing spreadsheet of over 100 books I want to read. i think if I focused I could read 1 (or more if they're small!) book a week.
3. be a friend

So, friends, happy new year! May the rest of your summer days be like a warm hug, as they have been to us.