Officially FALL! Season of change :)

September 24,2011… well technically September 25, 2011.. whoa it’s late!
SO with midterms quickly approaching, Nick has taken his studying to an entirely new level (hard to believe that is even possible, right?!). He’s up at the crack of dawn- even on the weekend, and studies all day, with short breaks to hit the gym or eat and that is about it!

He’s already asleep tonight, completely worn out and exhausted! His poor little, er.. big medical school student brain has been worked to death! Seriously, the amount he learns everyday AMAZES ME! It is unreal. This is an example of how our conversations go:

Me: “Hey babe! How’s studying going? Learning lots?”
Nick: “Yep. Just rocked out the entire cellular respiration” [which he briefly described and it went over my head, but I do know that it is some form of biochemistry… I think..]
Me: “Great job bug! You are doing so awesome!”
Nick: “Okay, now off to learn about the kidneys and every single artery and neural pathway known to man before hitting the hay tonight”
Me: “Okay good luck being smart and saving the world! I’ll just do my social work homework and eat a snickers bar”

I’m just so proud of him :) Midterms are tough because he’s a bit more MIA, but still he puts forth as much effort into talking to me as he can, and for that I am grateful.
Tonight, is a night, where I am missing him a lot. Okay, when has there been a night that I don’t… but tonight I miss him extra. I miss movie nights snuggled up on the couch. I miss glasses of our favorite wine and splurging on chips and dip. Most of all I miss snuggling, and laughing, and just being together :)
Also, it was the most AMAZING fall day today. Just so absolutely gorgeous outside. In the 60s, clear blue sky, sunny, with super crisp air. Can you say CIDERMILL DAY!?! Yes, oh yes, it was such a cidermill day. I was so envious of all the couples on Facebook posting about their trips to the cidermill today, but instead of the cidemill this year, I get the ocean and Grenadian sunsets… guess I don’t mind that :)




(Google images)

Aren’t these fall images to die for? So absolutely stunning and beautiful! I love seasons, and can’t imagine setting up roots anywhere without fall weather. Sweatshirts, football, coloring leaves, cider, donuts… ah, I absolutely love!!! So freakin’ ROMANTIC!!!

 

 COUNTDOWNS!!!!!!

September 22, 2011

Wow, so here we are, almost 6 1/2 weeks into this long distance fiasco and in my 3rd week of classes. It’s nice to be able to look back and see how far we’ve come and gives me the extra motivation needed to push forward! In 3 1/2 weeks I will be in Grenada! Eeeee! And in about 12 weeks I will officially be a graduate from the Social Work Master’s Program at the University of Michigan. And in approximately 15 weeks I will be moving with my man down to Grenada to live there for the next year and a half.

Talk about timelines. So excited about it all! So much will be happening in the next 15 weeks. OH, probably the most exciting, besides my Grenada visit, is that in a little less than 12 weeks Nicholas will be officially done with his FIRST SEMESTER of medical school! Yay! Slowly but surely, one ridiculously hard semester at a time :)

Oh, and Nick got an A on his Bioethics exam!! He is doing so great! Can’t say I am at all surprised, I knew he would be great :) So awesome to see all his hard work pay off though. Seriously, the boy lives in the library, study hall, dry/wet lab (which, yes I do indeed know the difference between!) and class. He makes me proud every day! Midterms in 2 weeks… ah!

Just one of those days...

September 18, 2011
It has just been one of those days where nothing seems to go right. School has been stressing me out and I feel like I just do not have the energy or motivation to deal with it. My classes are very needy this semester, with something due every class and high maintenance professors who appear to be very hard to please… sigh, senioritis much??
Nick has an exam tomorrow in bioethics. He’s been studying his butt off all day for it and I am sure he is going to kick butt. As a result of said exam however, I did not get to chat with him in person much today. Normally, I handle these days really well, and I am understanding, all is good, it’s whatever. He is afterall in medical school! 

Today, unfortunately that was not the case. I got snippy with him. Yes, even though I say over and over that I cherish the little time I have with him and appreciate it and all that jazz… like I said, today, has not been my day. I think it is the perfect example of just having too much. He should not be the one I take it out on, but ladies, some things never change… even with him in Grenada I can still get snippy with him because I grumpy. To make it worse, I want him to be here and make it better but he isn’t. Pathetic really. Again, it has been that sort of day.

So amidst my freakout and after huffing and puffing and having Skype stop working so I didn’t even get a goodbye (reason 85942084 why I hate being upset with him and why it isn’t worth it because then you don’t get a goodnight…but I digress) So amidst all of that, I have since managed to pull myself back together, taken a few deep breaths, and now reflect back on a good moment that I had yesterday.

I went out to dinner and hung out with Mama Leo last night, which was really fun! I hadn’t seen her in almost 2 weeks and had not yet had a chance to catch up with her about her vacation in Grenada. We ate, she showed me TONS of pictures, she told me some stories… just all in all a good time!

The moment to which I am referring however, actually took place before dinner. I was early heading to meet her at Wilson’s Pub, so I decided to take a small detour to the Grotto at St. Marys on my way. I’ve only been to the Grotto once or twice, but it is a really special place to Nick, and not to mention absolutely gorgeous.. so I decided to stop. I have this bad habit of when life gets really crazy, I run around and besides when I am laying in bed at night, rarely take a moment to just stop and give thanks for everything I have. So that is what I did. It was awesome. I felt this wonderful calming sensations come over me and this feeling of “everything is going to be okay.”

I’ve been freaking out over money, and at my wits end with my field placement and school, and missing Nick so much, that at times over the past month I have literally felt like I was barely holding on by a thread. But yesterday, I got the reassurance that I needed. I did not stay long, but in those few moments I felt more refreshed than I had felt in days.. maybe even weeks. It also helped me feel closer to Nick. He loves the Grotto and it’s a place that he has gone to for comfort or prayer in the past.

After my visit to the Grotto, like I said I had dinner with Mama Leo. At one point she brought up all the bugs and was like “Linds are you sure you’re going to like living there? It’s great for a vacation, but you might go stir crazy being there for that long!” I laughed, and having not been there, I could not totally disagree. But all that aside, I assured her I will be just fine in Grenada. And I think by the end of our conversation… she only thought I was half crazy!

The thing is, it may not be the easiest time of my life living on that island while my man studies his butt off going to medschool, but I know, without a doubt that that is where I belong. I am not looking for easy. He is my best friend and my better half. I’d rather do hard with him, and look back years from now and laugh over it, than do easy by myself. Besides, anything without him is much harder, than a year and a half with him in Grenada. Oddly enough, moving to be with him is the easiest decision I’ve ever made… even knowing that it isn’t going to be all ice cream and sprinkles. God has a plan, and God blessed me with him. And for that, I am thankful everyday <3

CheapOair... one stop shop for cheap flights

Well, out of curiosity I just looked through my phone and over the past 30 some hours I have had 13 calls to good ol’ CheapoAir and 7 calls to American Airlines. My longest call was 1hr 18 minutes, my shortest call was 17 minutes.Absurd.
      Our flights to Grenada for next semester were originally scheduled for January 5th, 2012. Well, for whatever reason, we experienced a “flight change” and were given 2 options to re-schedule. After looking them over, we decided on a similar flight for January 4th. No big deal, what is one day earlier?
Hold the phone because whereas the e-mail makes it sound like it is a simple switch… IT WAS NOT. You would think I wanted to re-route our trip to the moon.
So I get on the phone with a guy from CheapoAir, who calmly explains to me, that yes we have experienced a flight change and that no it will not be hard to correct this issue. He even assures me that if I have Nick’s information that I will also be able to book his new flight as well seeing as it would be long distance for him to do so. So at this point, around 10 am yesterday, I am thinking AWESOME! I’ll chat with Nick get his info, call back, and bam we will be set! … What’s the saying, when something seems to good to be true, then it usually is?
     Well, I get Nick’s info and call back… then, wait on hold for no joke about 30 minutes… then some guy answers the phone, I give him all the information that I already gave the annoying electronic women, and what happens? Yes, got disconnected. Awesomeness.
     I was pretty infuriated at this point, but still had to call back, wait on hold and repeat the whole process again. I finally think everything has been worked out and get online to check our itinerary and I notice that my flight info all looks but Nick’s isn’t allowing me to select any options. SO I call cheapAir back AGAIN. They tell me to call American Airlines. Long story short, I talked to several people I couldn’t understand, and they had to “check into the situation and call me back” three times. Finally, some guy informs me that Nick has been issued “paper tickets.” Now, apparently I am super dumb because I had no idea what he was talking about. He told me that Nick’s round trip tickets were being mailed to his home address in Commerce. Excuse me? So the tickets he needs in order to COME HOME are going to be waiting for him in Commerce… someone please explain to me how that makes any sense. I was so irritated. Needless to say, the man got a piece of mind. No big deal his manager assured me, Nick can just go fill out paper work at the airport day of, or I can fill out paper work when I go visit him. Thanks lady, we’d love to do more work due to your mistake. So glad we are dishing out the big bucks for your wonderful service!

However, the good news is we do have our tickets finally and Nick owes me whatever I want, whenever I want it for the rest of my life for handling the annoyance for him :) Hehe!

One month down!!!!

Considering making the change from Tumblr over to blogspot… can’t decide because I have already started here and I wouldn’t want to lose any of my posts. I could probably cut and past them however… hmm decisions.     Just read through another SO (a girl from the significant other’s organization) and the SO fb page. I’ve browsed a lot since Nick began planning to attend medschool in Grenada, but today I found a TON of information and pictures about the volunteer opportunities in Grenada that have to do with KIDS!
Ah, if you know anything about me it is that I love children. If, I can’t be employed (which is currently a huge cause of stress in my life right now, but I digress) then I will be more than happy to volunteer my time working with the children of Grenada. As a matter of fact, what I will be volunteering to do, is more or less something I would love to do as a “real job”… ie: one I would get paid to do… so minus the no money part, it is absolutely perfect for me.
     It’ll be awhile before I have any kiddos of my own, but in Grenada from the sounds of it there are many, many children (some with families and some without) who need love, attention, support, and did I mention love. So I’ll have my share of children for the next 2 years :) What more could a girl like me ask for?
I already caught myself in a daydream about the fun ways I can help teach them to read, and write, and learn multiplication, etc. Not to mention, I am really good at playing. Like.. really good. One girl I babysat put it very well “Miss Lindsey for an adult, you really know how to have fun and play real good, just like us kids.”
The one woman’s blog I read had pictures of her husband joining in on the fun during a few of his breaks and coming over to the school to play with the kids too. I can already 100% envision (and guarantee) this blog post has Nick rolling his eyes and unamused, but love kids too… and I can already see him sneaking over to play a few games too… because, well, he’s really good at playing too :)
     There is no love, like that of a child. And there is no one more deserving of love than a child. So, I can’t wait to meet all the kids and just absolutely love them to pieces!! Should we take bets now on how many I will want to bring home with me by the end??
Sidenote: A common theme in the blogs was how little these woman saw their medschool husbands. I have to say, reading their blogs made me feel very positive and optimistic. They described life in Grenada and the life of a significant other of a medschool student exactly how I pictured it and exactly like I have already experienced during this semester already. That being said, what they consider to be seeing “very little of so and so” … I consider to be a decent amount of time. That is the positive of starting out long distance eh? Any amount of time is more than what we have now. Any amount of time would be amazing and cherished. Any quick lunch, kiss, or passing would be a blessing. So, stupid long distance that I am tired of doing… I guess I owe you a big ole thank you. You’ve opened my eyes early to how hard complete separate is. And as a result of that, it will make me thankful for any time we get together, rather than upset over how little time together we have. Does that makes sense? Anyways, the glass is half full :)
     OFFICIALLY ONE MONTH DOWN <3 One month and 9 days until I visit. I’ll end this post by just pointing out… that we rock!! Seriously. We’ve never been this far apart (distance wise) and this is definitly the most challenging thing we’ve had to overcome so far as a couple, BUT, I’ve never felt more close to him, and I continue to love him more every day. Sigh, I have a way of making all my posts mushy gushy eh?

Fun (and cheap) home decorations

So I got sidetracked while searching online for the books I need for this upcoming semester and instead found myself looking up simple and fun decorations for around the house. I stumbled upon many different super fun and unique things that are so cute and yet cheap. Obviously, while living on the island we are going to be a wee bit strapped for cash, so in order to accessorize our home we are going to need to get creative! Check out all the fun ideas I found! I can’t wait to be able to post pictures of my own little creations :) Not to mention I will have a blast making all these fun things too! I can’t wait to be in Grenada!!!!

Soooooo, what is one thing that will for sure be plentiful and free in Grenada?! SEASHELLS! With that in mind I googled/pinterested creative things to do with shells. Ohmygoodness SO MANY GREAT IDEAS! Each project is so unique and turns out differently depending on the type of shells or the colors, etc. Here a few of my favorites that I found and absolutely fell in love with

(All images below come from Google or Pinterest).

This idea is so totally cool and simple! Any kind of jar or bottle would do. And I would think could easily be found around the island. Once you find that, ya just fill them with some sand and sweet shells and viola! An awesome house decoration is made! Cheap/free and cute =Win-win. Love.

How awesome of an idea is this?! To put little candles inside shells… LOVE IT! Whether the shells were actually this large or not (I think even smaller shells would do) it looks so cool, unique, and of course romantic!

And there are so many options for frames, or center pieces in bowls, or on fishing line etc! Need I say it?! …. SO fun!

I also heard that there is a lot of random wood pieces around the island. So I was thinking maybe something fun could be made out of that? Again, creative, and CHEAP. So I searched for a few ideas, and found more cool stuff! How fun is this? I am in love and would absolutely adore something like this. It’s so simple too. Different pieces of wood painted different colors with a picture simply glued on to it. ADORE IT. I will absolutely bring some paints with me and pray for stray wood on the island, I need to have something like this!!

Also, everyone knows how much I love quotes. So another cool idea I found is to paint wood and then paint a fun quote onto it. The wood can be any shape and really be a fun accessory to any room! Love it!

And yet another gem I found. TWINE. You can do something things with it and make almost anything look better or more fancy if you will. And… drum roll.. again, IT’S SO CHEAP! Yay! Plus I could easily just bring it down with me, if I so desired.

So maybe our home won’t be the most rich and luxurious place, but hey with some homemade decorations it will definitely be homey!! Plus, these little projects will be fun for me to do as well. And bonus, a lot of it will be done with random things found for free around the island, which will make looking for supplies an adventure also! Yay! Can’t wait to live on the island!

Home is where the heart is right? And my heart is already in Grenada! <3

“When you miss me just look up to the night sky and remember, I’m like a star; sometimes you can’t see me, but I’m always there.”

2 weeks has passed and seems like an eternity! Today has been one of those days where time seemed to stand still and I just really miss him. But I just ran out to my jeep and couldn’t help but to stop and look up at the beautiful, clear night sky. There was an odd sort of comfort in that…in knowing that way over in Grenada he looks at the same sky (but prettier, with more stars to be seen and heat lightening) as I do. However, that being said, tonight when I was outside, we also had heat lighting!! It is not very often we get it around here, so in that moment, I felt closer to him. We may be in different countries, yet we can still experience the same things at the same time :) Pretty cool! I am well aware of how cheesy that sounds, but hey, I’ve always been a hopeless romantic cheesy kind of gal!
So as usual, I found a picture on Google images to go with my post :)

Can’t wait to be looking up at the sky together again!!! It’s those simple, little moments that I miss the most :)

Hunting for a home

I received an email yesterday regarding housing in Grenada. It looks like there are some REALLY awesome places to live there, for a relatively decent price. That being said, the email informed me that most places are already filling up for January… what the heck.. already!? I won’t be visiting Grenada until the middle of October, and while I thought that would be a good time for me to look around and find a place, I am now thinking that will be too late. Sooo, that leaves this whole finding a place to live thing, in Nick’s hands.
Sigh. Nick is a guy. Enough said right? He does not exactly put “finding a place to live” at the top of his priorities. And yes, studying is much more important for him right now, and jumping off a cliff into the ocean is much more exhilarating and fun, but we need a place to live come January!! I really don’t want to get stuck scrambling last minute, or living in a cockroach invested apartment. I am not asking to be living in a castle with a walkout basement onto the ocean (not that I’d complain) but seriously, just a nice little place to call home for the next year or so. I wonder if the puppy face over skype is more effective than it is in real life? If so, maybe I can get him to throw me a bone and check into a few places!!!
Good thing I am pretty handy… this could be us in a few months!!! Hey, at least I would have the walkout onto the ocean part right? ;)

     Anyways, to update you all on Nick… he is doing GREAT! Medical school is no joke. Not that we expected it to be, but man did they hit the ground running right from the very first day. The amount they learn in ONE day has been said to be equivalent to one WEEK in undergrad… yeah, that sounds horrible and is reason #8954875207 that this girl is not in medschool!
His days are pretty routine so far. He gets up early, around 7 ish and then the majority of the rest of his day is filled with labs, classes, and studying, with a few short breaks to eat, until he hits the hay around 12-12:30am. LONG DAYS! He has a good group of friends though who are a good combination of fun and “serious studiers” as well. That has been great because it allows them to study in groups, and to help keep each other sane through the mass amounts of studying they have to do each day! I am happy to say he has officially survived his first week of classes and so far, appears to be settling in and thriving!
     As time goes on, I don’t miss him any less, but I truly see that everything does happen for a reason. I can not imagine Nick going to school anywhere else. I said it before he left, but seeing him in action (via skype) and the people he has met and how much he has thrived, I REALLY mean it now. St. George’s is the perfect spot for him to grow as a person, get unique experience, meet awesome people, and of course, become Dr. Leo.
     Sidenote: his number 1 complaint right now is that they don’t have “normal milk” and it is killing him! Now, I am a milk lover also, so I sympathize with him, but still, life is going pretty well, when milk is a top complaint right? :)