The Future is Scary

I was a big crank yesterday, I was not a fun person. Happy optimistic Char went temporarily into hiding because cynical cranky Char had her at the top of her shit list and knew just where to find her. 

I have set my life up so that I have a Plan B. That's the responsible thing to do. Plan A is to move to Indy/Chicago soon after graduation and find somewhere downtown in the heart of the city to use my history degree and thrive on the energy and people. I get to go to cutesy cafes, indie flea markets, and fill my brain up with as much culture as humanly possible. I wish I could explain how much I love the city. Any city. I just live for the moments that I get to spend in the hustle and bustle of a bubbling metropolis. Those are the moments that I love most of all, they are the memories that shine to me like gold lost in 20+ years worth of file cabinets full of manilla memories. 

Plan B is to be a history teacher. This is a super safe plan. I would probably stay somewhat close to home. I love home. My hometown is perfect for me, and Plan A involves my town but not until after I have kids. Plan B puts me in a safe environment with a job I know I can find around here. 

I wish I didn't have a Plan B. When I look at the scary parts of Plan A (moving to a city by myself, making new friends, finding a job) Plan B looks too enticing... I don't want to throw away what could be a lifetime of gold memories because I'm scared. 

Fair Oaks Dairy Farm

This past thursday at the Place of Occupation we took the kiddos on a field trip to Fair Oaks Dairy Farms. This farm is massive, I'm talking like 35,000 cows. Intense and super cool.

Well one of the sites the farm offers it's guests is a chance to view a calf being born. There are like 10 calfs born a day there so it happens pretty often. Well we lucked out and got a chance. Here is a picture I found online of what this room looks like. 

This little glass area is surrounded by stadium seating. Stadium seating. There will be no stadium seating in my hospital room. Poor mama cows. And the poor mama cow we saw just happened to have some difficulty. I won't go into details but the whole ordeal ended with ropes, a vet, a few of my older boys complaining of nausea for the rest of the day, and me being scarred for life. There will also be no ropes in my hospital room. 

Side Note: The last thing we did was watch a movie called "From Grass to Glass". I had no idea what they meant by "Glass". I just kept thinking about it, do they make glass from milk? Is there something I don't know? And after the movie I still didn't get it. I was super confused by the title. Just 5 minutes ago did I realize that it meant glass as in a liquid retaining device. Ya know, something you drink milk out of. Oh my goodness. Not good Char, not good. 

Summer Lazy

I don't know what it is about summer that leaves blogging looking a little lackluster, but i imagine it's hitting everyone since my favorite reads are a little sparse these days. This ban on talking about work related anything is getting to me. I see a lot of policy breaking in my future...

What does rear it's ugly head in the summer however, is shopping! I've been logging some serious hours on Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, and Mod Cloth's websites. 

Here's my latest find. I'm loooving this dress from Mod Cloth!

I'm also falling for this cute little tee. I found it on Delias, not a website I normally check out but I made an exception. How cute would this look under a blazer with the sleeves scrunched up or a pretty colored cardigan??

Oh Char

I told a friend that the every 2 week routine the BF and I have hammered down in the last THREE summers works pretty well. The first two weeks are the hardest and then it's pretty doable. 

Well I told her that in May. Before summer had started. Back when I could see him whenever I wanted. 

Sometimes my optimism comes back and bites me in the butt. 

Posts to follow about the weekend!

Wigs and Boas

You know you have a great job when your male coworker calls at 9 pm asking if you have a wig or a feather boa he can borrow for work the next day. And then seems genuinely disappointed when you tell him you don't have either. 

On a run...

This makes me laugh every time : )

Taste 5

Overall I would classify this week as a success! Except for my brief stint as a tripod... Friday we ran off to explore Valparaiso. First we went to BDubs and then walked around exploring the beauty of downtown Valpo. I had never fully appreciated the city's efforts to keep the main drag looking beautiful but wow they have done a fantastic job. On our walk we ran into a sign advertising a wine and food festival the next day to raise money for a park downtown. Mental note made. 

After our exploration it was miniature golf! I have not yet added up the scores, but after a particularly nasty incident with a hole on a slope I'm going to guess the BF will emerge the victor... 

Saturday we took a little trip to Lake Michigan, making a point to go to a beach we hadn't been to before. As usual, we never get beach weather, it was windy and chilly and soon the sky over Chicago started to darken and head our way. We narrowly escaped rain and it was back to Westville. 

After some grilled cheese and laziness the sun came out and we decided to check out Taste 5, the wine and food festival in Valpo we had seen advertised the day before and I have to say it was pretty great! It was smaller than we had imagined, Valpo is after all a rather large city, but still very nice. Five of the city's best restaurants teamed up to put on something akin to the Taste of Chicago. We bought tickets for a dollar apiece and each restaurant had a booth set up where they sold their most popular dishes for a set amount of tickets. We decided to split lamb from a spanish restaurant and a fantastic nut and berry cheesecake from either a french or italian restaurant, we don't remember which... The BF tried a new dark beer and I tried sangria. I am not a wine person, something about the smell bothers me, but this was actually pretty good, with big chunks of  orange, lime, and lemon floating in the dark red liquid. A success definitely. 

After Taste 5 we wandered around and took pictures. Well the BF did, my camera is still out of commission : ( Eventually we ended up at a South Bend Chocolate Factory Cafe where the BF got some coffee (yet another grown up drink I don't enjoy) and we read over some newspapers. 

The plan was to go to see Up later that night but we still had a lot of time to waste so we went to Barnes & Nobles for awhile. The movie overall was really cute and visually stunning, but we were both left wanting a little more. I thought the ending was a little abrupt and the BF just thought it was generally a little boring but oh well. 

Today was mostly just a lazy day. After hiking up dunes and running around Valpo we were pooped. We took Boomer and Wicket for a walk and that was about the extent of our day. Later, we fell asleep for a looong time and then watched a pretty snazzy dinosaur show on the History channel. 

So, one long blog later and I think that's the end of our weekend. The BF took off a few hours ago and it's always weird to go from seeing each other nonstop for a few days to being two hours apart again. Luckily a great weekend sent us off in good moods and looking forward to a weekend two weeks from now : )

Quote of the Weekend

BF: Babe, stand still.

Char: Are you seriously using my head as a tripod?

BF: Babe, you're the perfect height!

This weekend was the start of our summer weekend trips to each other's houses. Generally, our rule of thumb is to see each other every two weeks which isn't exactly ideal but it's worked for the last two summers! 

More on our weekend later : )

Old School Robyn

Ok I remember being in middle school, maybe a few years younger, and hearing these songs on the radio alll the time and loving them! It was back before itunes and internet in the house and for some reason I never got the tape/CD. I stumbled upon them today and just had to share. I know no one else will probably care but I do!

The Many Faces of...

I make this face all the time. 

I use it to express surprise, disgust, and any number of other reactions. 

As far as I know, however, it's only been caught on film twice. Once at my senior prom and once at my best friend's wedding last summer. 

Enjoy. 

Second photo courtesy of the BF...