Being at rest

As the move is even closer, I find that I am not doing a good job of taking time out to relax. Even when I sit down to watch my favorite shows I have a book out, my laptop, my dog, probably food. There are so many things all over me that I can't actually get anything done ever! I also feel guilty about not doing any of those things or not being able to finish any of them or do them well. So I am trying to start a new habit of being still during the things I enjoy: watch the tv show without having to do something else or maybe go to dinner and leave the phone in the car.

So I thought I would give you a list of 5 ways that I am going to work on enjoying the moment. 

1- Stop trying to do everything at the same time. Do one thing at a time and do each thing well before moving on to the next task. 

2- Take time for me. Spend time on a craft project, reading a book, blogging, the dog park with Lily, or whatever makes me happy. 

3- Let the pressure go. I know it sounds way to much like Elsa, but everything will get into a box at the end of the day so I don't need to make anyone else happy with my packing arrangement. 

4- Stick to my priorities. I am not doing a great job of turning down events that I don't want to attend and I am struggling to make time for the events that I want to attend because I feel bad about everything else. 

5- Get enough sleep. I've started staying up late and trying to get up early. In most of those cases I was watching junk TV?!? So I would like to shoot for 7 full hours in the bed without the lights or phone on. I gotta be specific. 

How do you take time for yourself? Is it by being away or being with people? 

Developing the perfect Biscuit recipe!

A few weeks ago I checked Southern Biscuits out from the public library, I saw it on some book email and was super interested. It was a great read about the history of biscuits and how to make them. I have tried to make biscuits over and over again and I usually get flat rocks... so I was intrigued about this making something different.

This book helped immensely, I got fluffy biscuits!!! It turns out that I was way over handling my dough and when that happens you get rocks. It was interesting to read about the methods and why you want to just kinda pull everything together and then let it rest. Mine are quite as big as they ones on the book cover but they are so much better than before.

All-purpose flour with baking powder

Self-rising flour

I tried two different recipes: Basic Southern Biscuits and Baking Powder Biscuits. They main/only difference is the flour: self-rising vs. flour with baking powder. I found they are about the same, some complain about the taste of the baking powder. I am so excited to finally have a biscuit recipe that I can whip up easily. I did use real buttermilk so that I don't tend to have but it was ok. Also, I just popped the uncooked biscuits in the freezer and then popped them on a baking sheet when I wanted them on another day (give them a few extra minutes in the oven)!

I am so thrilled that I got this book, should I see a copy of it somewhere for not a whole lot of dollars I will definitely pick up a copy. These are so good and I love that I can freeze them and then have fresh biscuits anytime I make breakfast.

Friday's Fun Fotos

You know with all of the moving and things I just thought that I would share a few recent photos of my life, just in case you don't instagram stalk me. I know pictures are super exciting, but none of these are enough for a full post so here you go. Happy Friday I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

So for months every time it rains this was my bedroom... awesome. In theory it is fixed

I had a chance to hang with my Aunt and her horses one day... so fun

New fun background on my work computer

I love this braid I just whipped up one day, fancy

The workers were here to fix things at the apt, Lily was over it.

I hope your weekend is amazing and that you are able to spend sometime with your fathers this Father's day. I won't be with mine, I wish I was but not this year. 

And so it begins...

Well it is official I am moving out of Dallas, yes I know that we have known that for months now, however I rented a truck today, hired movers in Dallas, will hire movers in Jax, and started putting things in boxes. What!?!? This is crazy. 

Look how nervous this little one is

I cannot believe that the move is getting close, less than 4 weeks. I will admit that I am so excited to get things started in Jax but at the same time it is hard to know that I am leaving all of my friends here. It seems like just yesterday that I was moving to Dallas away from all of my StL friends. Crazy. I have loved most of my time here in Dallas (there were a few minutes that just weren't awesome, but isn't it always that way).

There are a few big things that I still want to do while I am here and I have been trying to figure out how many of those there are. I know that I want to check out the Bush Library (this is W's library), I find these library's to be a must see. After that I just want to be able to spend time with my friends and family that live here. I feel like I am on a final tour... but I don't want this to be the last time that I come to town. I am sure it won't be my family lives here, so I am having a meltdown for nothing. Awesome.

Well I am off to put more things in boxes, I am hoping to get at least 7-10 boxes packed today. I am resisting packing because that makes it more real than putting money down on the move. I hope Lily and I can hold it together while we get ready to get out of Texas!

Canton, TX: Checking it off the Texas bucket list

One of the barns full of stuff

One of the items on my Texas Bucket List has been First Monday's in Canton, TX. For those that don't know this is a giant craft market with just about everything you could ever imagine. I talked two of my girlfriends into taking this adventure with me, we ended up going twice two months in a row since we got lost the first time. First Monday is divided into four parts: the Mountain, Dog Alley, Old Market Place, and the main part.

First Trip
We got there in the early afternoon and I of course put on tons of sunscreen, can't burn this skin, and we headed off. We started in Dog Alley, which was full of puppies, cats, chickens, really everything you could want. We started to pet the dogs but it was a little weird to be told to use hand sanitizer before petting the dogs. After a bit of this we headed to the Old Mill section, only a few of the shops were occupied. Then we went to the Mountain, which was super cute and hilly. This was more like an upscale garage sale and lots of junk. At this point I was over Canton, because where was the homemade stuff?!? I had asked a few people about it but no one was really helpful. We went to the Farmers Market and finally a woman was like see all of those barns across the street... that is what you were looking for. I was so over it and hot so we decided to just head home. I didn't buy anything or get a funnel cake. So I wasn't sure about this adventure at all.

Second Trip
L convinced me that we should give Canton another go, so we decided to go back the next month and only hit up the Main Barns. Parking was slightly more difficult on this trip, we wanted to be closer to the shopping this time. After we parked we got in and it was everything I could have ever hoped for. I saw so many hand crafted things, knowing I was moving really kept me from buying everything. I struggled with figuring out what I wanted and what is worth the money. Hand-crafted things are super expensive and I like to make sure I feel like they are well made before ponying up. In the end I grabbed two Texas Stars for my new patio in Florida.

They are rusty and awesome. I am pretty sure that I can sand these and paint them a different color at some point in life. I think I want to like rustic things but I don't like them. I really like pretty fancy things, so I am sure these will get painted eventually but for $3 each I will love them.

Here are a couple of tips, things I wish we had done better:
-Hit up the main barns and leave the rest alone
-Wear sneakers and shorts. It gets warm in there and we went on days that weren't too hot yet.
-If you are really shopping bring a cart. Having to carry whatever we bought kept me from buying lots of things, but if I was really shopping I would have borrowed a cart from someone so that I didn't have to carry it.
-Look for deals but if you find something you like I would just buy it.
-Use a backpack, I would have loved to not have to buy water so that I could stay hydrated. However, unlike in Dallas most of the water was $1 so it wasn't bad to have to buy water.

Looking at apartments: JAX addition

So my mom and I flew into Jacksonville late on a Wednesday and were flying back out late Saturday night. I knew that we would spend most of Thursday and Friday looking at places and that most of the work needed to be done before I landed in Jacksonville. I had come up with a list of apartments that I liked online (probably 6 A-list and 8 B-list properties), I also had written down the things I liked about the properties so that I could quickly remember which ones I liked and which ones I didn't. I will admit that having a dog and some random specific things that I will not have in my apartment made it a little difficult to like lots of properties.

Before we left for dinner I drew up a map of the city and where the properties were that I liked, previously I just used alphabetical order or even just the order in which I found them. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't driving all over the city and back-tracking since I hadn't paid attention to location.

Well this is upside down but you get the point

In the morning of the first day we started with the closet property which also happens to be the one that I loved the most. I took about 3 pictures in the unit and I am not even sure we got the whole tour, I didn't see the dog park or even the rest of the property (didn't realize that until later). From there went headed out to see several more properties, one of my favorites didn't have any openings. I will admit now that I was not overly impressed with many of the properties that we saw that day and it made me panic. Before lunch we toured one that I had liked online but I was so unimpressed once we got there, I also might have been hungry (never a good thing). We toured another one right before we headed to the beach for a break.

After the beach we found a Starbucks, which was the saving grace of this trip the wifi and coffee saved us twice. Since I was in a silent panic about having choices because at this point we hadn't seen a first floor apartment and I didn't like some of the ones we had seen. Then I opted to see apartments that I didn't even like online, that was stupid. Eventually we called it a day and I was lost as to what to rent.

On Friday we spent the morning at my new job and then out to lunch. We toured one last property, which had a first floor apartment for an extra $75 on top of the most expensive rent. Also, we had to wait about 20 minutes to get a tour, which kills me. I also didn't love that she kept talking about seeing my students around the property (not the way to get my on board).

So back to Starbucks... I made a pro/con list while my mom read and I could see on her face that she was panicking too.

The list was crazy helpful, at some point it came down to who had what I wanted for the price that I was willing to pay. I found it interesting that a big part of my decision was how good the property would be for Lily. I think I would have rented the most expensive property for her but at the end of the day I think we will be super happy with the one we chose.

The kitchen, major selling point

This is our building!!

Healthy Lunch

In recent months I have been working on getting my lunch under control. I find that I forget that 100 calorie packs add up, you know if you eat 5 of them that is 500 calories not like 200. So in the last few months I have been trying to find options that I like and don't feel like I have eaten a million and five calories. Here is one of my current faves, I have estimated the calories for each part (I may be a scientist but these are just best guess numbers).

Tortellini with parmesan cheese and tomatoes: ~206 (tortellini), ~40 (parm), 5 (tomatoes)
Carrots and Hummus:  32 (carrots) and ~35 (hummus)
Nectarine: 62 calories

Total: 380 calories

A couple of things about the tortellini dish, I take the small package from the grocery store and cook it and then divide it into 4 portions, in this case. I keep it in the fridge and add some cheese and tomatoes in the morning and leave for work. I do tend to bring a few other options just in case I get really hungry in the afternoon. No one wants a hunger monster to show up in the office. I also tend to drink water which has zero calories! Yay!

Afternoon snack: goldfish crackers or a banana

I almost always have a snack at some point in the afternoon but I try to keep it around 100 calories, since that is what they are currently recommending. I eat cereal and coffee (with creamer) for breakfast.

What do you eat for lunch? I will try and share my other most favorite lunch soon.

ATT Byron Nelson Golf Tournament

I got the chance to attend the ATT Byron Nelson Golf Tournament last week with my best gal pal, Laura. She got day passes and we decided to head out there on Friday so that it might not be too crowded and we could take a day off. Gotta love a random Friday off, it makes me feel so luxurious. Anyway, back to the story. It had been raining in Dallas for weeks, so honestly I wasn't sure we were going to make it out there. But the golfing started three hours late (which was nice for us to sleep in). We headed out there around noon and after finally figuring out where to park (lesson: look it up before you get there), we got to see the golfers. With the crazy amount of rain I opted to wear shorts and rain boots, which was both an awesome idea and a horrible idea.

We look so preppy!

We sat here in the shade at the 2nd green for the whole adventure

Watching Dufner putt

My dad said our options for the day were to wander with some golfers or to find a place to park it. We decided that parking it was probably better for us. The ground was super wet, so we spread out my raincoat to sit on. I am so glad I thought of this, when other people got up there pants were really wet. It was also crazy humid so it was nice to have a place under a tree. The rain boots were pretty awesome when we were walking around, the ground was super muddy and I don't like to get dirty, however after a while it got super hot in them. The lady behind me asked if my feet were hot and I told her they were so hot but I was afraid that they would stink so bad I wouldn't take them off. So I probably won't do that again but it was nice to not ruin my shoes.

We saw lots of golfers, it was so fun. We didn't get a chance to see Jordan Speith (the Dallasite), he was pretty close to finished when we arrived and it seemed like a silly idea to hustle over there to see him. I may regret that some day but it was still fun to see so many golfers. I loved getting to check this off my life bucket list with a friend. I am sure that my dad and I will hit up another golf tournament at some point, I would love to take him to the Masters at some point. All in all this was a great adventure.

8 Years together: Adventures of Han and Lily

As of today Lily and I have been together for 8 years! I cannot believe that it has been that long, although I cannot really think of a time that she wasn't my girl. I remember the day that I got her, it was raining and the jerk-face that I was dating and I headed out to a pet fair to look at dogs. When we pulled up there was a small yellow/white dog not under the awning just being pitiful and getting wet. I wandered around looking at all of the other dogs, I didn't want to buy the first dog I saw (even though I was pretty sure that I wanted her). Eventually, we made it back to where she was and I asked about her and she was still available...

I reached in and pulled her out to see if we got along... and she peed on me. It was obviously love at first sight or first bowel movement. I remember leaning down to snuggle her and asking if her name was Lily and she nuzzled me after that. So I scooped her up and we departed into our lives together.

We both look so young

So tiny and at this point I already knew I was in love

I cannot believe that we have been together for 8 years! We are about to depart for our third state to live in, hello Florida. I am so excited about our next adventure. I am so blessed to have found this lost puppy years ago, I cannot believe that I got so lucky to be her puppy-mom. She is incredible.

Here are some more recent shots

Remember when I said no dogs on the bed... yeah I think that is silly now too.

Being a dog-mom is best there is, I love that she is happy when I get home and is soooo excited. I love being her mom! I can't wait to see what the next years will bring and if she hates the ocean as much as I expect her to.

May Recap and June Goals

I feel like the month of May lasted forever and somehow I didn't get anything accomplished, it was the month with no end. Although as I sit here typing this up on the last day of May it suddenly seems like a really short month. Oh well, it is life. Feel free to read all about my May Goals here. Here is how May went (some good some not so good) and here are the big tasks that I would like to get accomplished this month.

May Recap
1- Manuscripts: Eh, not awesome. Our paper got rejected so I will be sending it back out tomorrow and I still haven't finished the second one (I can't find time to open the document).

2- Fitness: Neither of these really happened. It was a long month, maybe in June. Also the massive amount of rain really put a damper on my running.

3- Find an apartment: Success!! I put down a deposit and have an address!

4- Hire Movers and moving truck: yeah not so much

5- Quality time with Lily: It was better, although with the traveling and the rain I don't think we hit up Mutt's at all.

6- Read more: Success, I read a ton this month. Lots of that was done on an airplane but that is OK.

7- Schedule: Went to JAX and St. Louis, so that is good. My weekends are filling up and I still need to schedule a few more visits!

8- Read Textbook: Just carried it around.

I'm not going to lie, I had really hoped that I had done better in May. Sometimes it just feels like you are running in sand and nothing really gets accomplished. I am going to try and roll with this failure to complete tasks and not let it totally derail me... Not sure that is how things are going to work out but oh well.

June Goals

1- Manuscripts: Resubmit the first one and get a final draft of the other one together. I need to start adding this into my schedule (I always find something more fun to do).

2- Hire movers and truck: I am getting closer to making this happen, I am working out the final details.

3-Fitness: I would like to run 25 miles, at least 10-12 runs and I would like to get back into the swing of my strength training in the mornings.

4- Schedule: Visit San Antonio, spend time with friends. Enjoy the moment, my time is coming in Dallas is coming to an end and I am feeling panicked about it and I am afraid that I won't be able to enjoy it.

5-Lily: She needs more time together where I can focus on her. If it doesn't rain I would like to hit up the dog park once a week. I would also like to walk her in the morning for a mile, several days a week.

6- Packing: I would like to gather more boxes and pack 20-30 boxes. I need a specific number so that I will know that I have at least started on this task. In my mind it will only take a few hours to pack the whole apartment and that is probably a lie.

7- Say no to things that I don't want to attend. As my time in Dallas comes to a close I am done saying yes to events that I don't want to go to and I am committing to spending time with my friends when it works.

8- Read the textbook: at least the first five chapters and write down the top 5 topics for each chapter. I think this will help me plan out my schedule for the fall.

9- Look into finding a new planner for the school year.

Not going to lie the next 6-7 weeks are going to be super busy but I am going to try and enjoy every moment and find time to not panic. I cannot believe i will be a professor soon!!! Ahhh, so exciting.