It's that time of year again when we all gather with our family and friends to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast and reflect on the events of the last year. Last November, I devoted an entry a day to something I am thankful for, but sadly did not do it again this year. I thought about doing it again this year, but I am thankful for the same great things and people in my life and feel incredibly blessed.
This year brought me and Will some hard times, but also some good times. We laughed, we cried, we hugged, we danced, we rose to the occasion, we made we made adult decisions, we grew and we lived a full life.
My husband is the best. He's such a great guy and if you don't know him, you need to. He's pretty darn funny! Will is also very supportive of me in my new endeavors and always has my back. My rock that guy. We continue to have some good times together and we truly are best friends. Okay, enough mushiness, I know, it's gross ;) For reals though, I love the guy to the moon and back.....
My new job is great. I love my new job as a financial aid advisor. I finally get to work with students every day and even though some are difficult, it is so worthwhile. I love teaching moments that I have with students. I feel like I really can make a difference in their lives. My new co-workers rock too, which makes leaving my treasured friends at UI not easy, but it makes my transition a little smoother. Best of all, I get to use my freaking degree! Boom! Go financial literacy....holla.
My family is amazing. I don't think that it is possible to see family enough, but this year we were fortunate enough to see both the Brustuen and Gillespie sides of the family more than normal. We even got to see family that we hardly ever see at all! We have incredible families and they mean so much to us. Only a few members of our family are in Moscow, but you are all in our hearts every day and know that we love you all so much and wish we could see you so much more!
Thank you friends and family for being a part of our lives. We are forever thankful for you. We are excited for this next year and what adventures lie ahead.
Since my new job has settled down and our busy summer social schedule has also settled down, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to update y'all on my reading challenge.
I finished the Opposite of Maybe and found it to be good, not great, but good. I read it mostly during my lunch breaks at work (oh those were great...I miss lunch breaks!) and it was a great way to unwind and destress at work. I love reading because it allows me to focus in on one thing and I just completely forget about everything else. It's quite nice. :) Anyhoo, back to the book. It ended how I wanted it to, but not before a twist. Girls can be foolish....but the main character finally came around. Phew!
One of our summer events was to visit our good friends Emily and Blair in Selah, WA. Their sweet son, Tucker, is our Godson. We love that little guy to pieces. This year Tucker turned two and since we were on our honeymoon for his first birthday, we definitely wanted to be there for his second. Emily is one of my friends who also loves to read and coincidentally, we have very similar tastes in books. She actually inspired me to go through our books and purge, which we took to Hastings to see if they would buy some back, which they did, and the rest we let friends go through then donated to Goodwill. Emily and I always share book recommendations and books. I left that weekend with three books of hers: The Fault in Our Stars, Philomena and What Happened to Goodbye. I decided to read The Fault in Our Stars since everyone I have talked to raved about this book.
Then I found out why.
It.Was.Good. I loved this book! It didn't have a "Happy Ending" per se, but it had a good ending and I couldn't have pictured it any other way. The story is about a Hazel, a girl who has terminal cancer. Cancer sucks. Enough said. She meets a boy named Augustus at a group therapy session and her life is changed. I think it was so awesome to see how positive an influence Augustus was on Hazel and to read about their adventures. I cannot do this book justice, but it's a must read for all! I was warned that it has many sad parts, one in particular, so Emily tried to warn me not to read it in public. Oops. I failed. I finished reading this book when I was on my flight to Seattle to see family. I cried. My eyes were so blurry with tears I couldn't read. Yeah, I am THAT girl.
When we were in Selah, Judy B. (Emily's mom) was there too. We had a long discussion about books and created a list for each other to read. One of the ones I asked to borrow from her was 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. It was a book that she read for a church small group that my sister Marin was in. I had heard about their discussions and I thought this would be right up my alley. So here she is, my current read:
Now, I have just started this book and unfortunately, have not been reading lately. Working on changing that STAT! This book actually has workbook components to it, but since it is not MY book, I am not doing the workbook writing activities. That is why I have a blog ;) So far I love the author and I love the book. It has been heart-warming to hear about how her and her husband adopted two kids from Africa, opened up their house to twelve strangers after a hurricane and how they ultimately looked at their life and realized how much excess stuff they have and how a lifestyle transformation would change their lives. They chose seven areas of their life and focused on one each month for seven months.....I have a feeling that this is going to be a HUGE eye opener for my own life...
In June, Will and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary!
It's amazing how time flies.....
Will knew that paper was the traditional gift for a first
anniversary. He earned brownie points for that :) So, when I was in the kitchen
getting some stuff cleaned up and making breakfast, he walked up behind me and
said, "Remember how the first anniversary is paper? Well, happy
anniversary!" To my surprise, he had a roll of toilet paper in his hand.
What the what?!
I thought it was a joke
since I drink a lot of water and have a small bladder so I always have
to pee. Very funny Will, very funny. However, I turned the roll sideways and
found a little red thing inside. I am now the proud owner of a red fit bit.
Y'all ever heard of fit bit? It's similar to other fitness
bands on the market, but this one takes the cake in my opinion. It tracks my
steps, miles, active minutes, calories burned, sleep patterns and then I can
enter my food/calorie intake, water drank and my weight and create a weight loss
plan. It's the bees knees. Since my new job, I have been using the pedometer on
my phone to track my steps. I take the long way into the office and walk up
three flights of stairs and the bathroom is about 180 steps away (compared to
my last office which was like 10 steps away!). I am obsessed with my fit bit
and it has sparked some motivation and has been encouraging me to get fit!
My gift to Will wasn't as cool or exciting, his paper
involved a receipt from Old Navy in which I bought him two pairs of shorts and
one pair of pants. I know his pant size (I like to dress him!) and
unfortunately, got distracted #brightcolors and grabbed the wrong pair. He
tried them on and said, "Are these manpris?!?!" Ha ha ha oops! Big
difference in length between and 30 and a 33. My bad.
We headed to the Paradise Creek Brewery for lunch. The sign
says BEST BURGERS IN PULLMAN. They don't lie. We each got one and I typically
don't each burgers, but these ones absolutely rocked the house! And my face! The
beers? Always good. I highly recommend JDub's Pale Ale. Delicious. It was
during the world cup, so we got to watch a game on the big screen too.
Our main plan for our anniversary was to eat dinner at one
of my favorite restaurants, South Fork, in Pullman. Since we just had lunch, we
needed to kill time. So, what did we do? Well, duh....we went to a movie! When
we left Paradise Creek, we had some time before the movie...apparently, we read
the clock wrong. We decided to hit up
the Fireside Grille for a drink before the movie since it's in the same
parking lot. When we walked in Fireside I stopped and looked at Will and said
almost too excitedly, "Do you hear what song is playing?!?!?! It's our
wedding song! This is so great!" Yes, he realized it too.
After our quick stop, we hit up the Village Center Cinema
for the new X-Men movies. Was it good? Dang straight. I love all the X-Men
movies, but my girl J-Law was in this one.....awesome! We still hadn't worked
up enough of an appetite, so we played a round of mini golf. I lost by three strokes.
#Ilethimwinforouranniversary
Finally we went to South Fork. They have some awesome food
and a great drink menu. I branched out and tried something new, the Asian
chicken salad. YUMMMMM! I think Will had some kind of sandwich, which was also
good. Their fries rock. Shoestring and bomb.com.
To end our fun-filled WAM day, we headed home to do what we
love to do: watch Harry Potter and lounge in our cozies. It was such a nice
day. It was simple, but we shared many laughs and enjoyed each other's company.
We've been through one heck of a year and enjoyed every moment of it. To top it
off, one of the greatest gifts he could ever give me was to turn off his phone
#wifeofaphonesalesmanproblems I also did the same. We took just a few photos,
but otherwise we said "See ya world! Today I am with my love, we'll catch
ya on the flip side ;) "
Year two of WAM the married years is going to be one wild
ride......bring on the adventures!
PS This song is one that came out after we got married, but
I fell in love with it the minute I heard it. It totally reminded me of us and
how we feel about each other and how we love all the good things, the bad
things and the weird things about one another.
So, I have finished my third book of 2014. The Art of Racing in the Rain. It’s taken me so long to read it because I was still in school and writing like a maniac, therefore had no “reading time.” However, since I started my new job, I read while I eat lunch. Good combination ;) I didn’t LOVE this book, but I really liked it.
I love that the book is written from the perspective of the dog, Enzo. It was interesting to read it from the dog’s perspective,but I think it would have been a completely different book if it were from another’s perspective. Well played Garth Stein, well played. This book is sad. There are many sad parts of the book and for most of it, I was reading in public. I have only ever cried reading one book before, The Notebook (not because it’s a cute love story, but rather it was my grandpa’s favorite book because the story is crazy similar to that of he and my grandma), but as I sat on the first floor of the French Adminstration building, my eyes welled up with tears. Oh crap. Public cryer….over a book. However, the end was that good. Super awesome ending. Read the book.
After I finished this book, I decided to read one that I got as a graduation gift from Mims, Carry On, Warrior: The Power of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life, by Glennon Doyle Melton. The author happens to be my new BFF. Not really, at least she doesn’t know, but I think she is fabulous and I love her. I love her like I love the other two blogs I follow religiously and consider her my new friend. I think she'd like that :)
The book is a compliation of essays about her life. Glennon is a “recovering everything” as she puts it. She is a recovering alcoholic, smoker, druggie and bulimic. To hear her story in complete honesty is amazing. I have never experienced a writer, or person, be so open and so raw. It took her a while, as you can read for yourself, to become who she is and to feel comfortable with herself. She will be the first person to admit that she is not perfect, not even close, but she loves life. She is a mom, a sister, a wife, a daughter and a friend. She knows that each of these roles is hard and demanding and she sometimes struggles, but she admits her faults, her shortcomings and embraces life’s challenges. I absolutely LOVE this book and recommend it to everyone!
The current book I am reading is another gem from Mims called The Opposite of Maybe, by: Maddie Dawson. I literally just started so am only a few chapters in, but so far, I like it! It's a great, light chick lit read for summer.
It's about a girl, Rosie, who is in her mid 40's and has been with her BF for forever. Unmarried and no kids. The only ones of their friends.....he has a weird obsession with antique teacups...what the what?! Yeah, I already am not a fan. She was raised by her grandmother, Soapie (what a name, right?). Soapie is the sassy, fun-loving old broad I hope to be when I am 80+. She has a yoga class that meets at her house in which they drink bloody marys. Now, that's MY kind of yoga! Anyhoo......Jonathan gets offered a job in San Diego and proposes out of the blue to Rosie so she'll come with him. Does she? Nope...good girl, he's not right for you! However, she also gets pregnant at 44. What the what! The drama.....loves it! She instead moves in with Soapie and becomes her caregiver. The more I get into it, the more secrets and twists I encounter. Like I said, it's a nice easy summer read....
Those are my latest reads. I have plenty up on deck, but am loving the free time and being able to read for fun again, so if you have any recommendations, send them my way!
Life has been nuts lately. I feel like I am a broken record because I've been saying that A LOT! But for reals, it has been busy, but good busy :)
For starters, my graduate school career is coming to a close. I walked last Saturday. Check me out:
My awesome hood....
Graduation was fun. Students are all alphabetized (SIDENOTE: so weird to have a different last name this time around! I almost forgot until the reader called my name and I was like, "Oh snap! He got my name right....well duh, because it is Gillespie not Brustuen and if you can't say Gillespie right, then you have a whole other problem!" and like my undergrad degree, I got lucky and sat by some cool peeps. Only downside to getting a master's is that you sit for a loooooooooong time and watch hundreds of kids walk up to the stage, get their photo taken, shake Stabes hand and then head back. Stabes, that's our new President. Great speaker. Pretty decent guy. I brought my phone to the ceremony. I was on Facebook, Pinterest, email, text...whatever you can think. My grad regalia (fancy word for grad gown that looks like it is from Hogwarts) had super crazy sleeves that had pouches where I could put things if I wanted. They are not just for looks ;) Silly me forgot my snacks, but I could put a water bottle, chapstick and my phone there. Heck, I could have put a small animal there if I wanted :)
It was a great time and I had a ton of fun having family and friends in town!
We had a get together back at our place and more friends came over to celebrate my "graduation." Ya....about those parenthesis...
My plan was to defend my thesis on May 1st and I would officially be DONE DONE DONE on May 17th. The week before I had the realization that I was not going to make the May 1st deadline. This made me sad at first, like I failed. I felt defeated and was on the verge of tears in my major professor's office. It was a crazy, bad day in FCS anyway, which did not help my situation. We talked about it a great deal and decided the best thing was to push my thesis back and submit for the first summer deadline, June 6th. The cool thing about it is that I don't have to pay for summer school. SAY WHAT?! That's right. There's a weird loop hole that allows grad students to submit by June 6th and if they are registered for master's thesis credits in spring, then it's free! Universities don't give anything besides pens out for free, so I was stoked. It was a sign.
Here is the title page of my thesis....
So June 4th, say a little prayer for me as I give the biggest and most important presentation of my life.
My story gets better. Trust me. Hang in there and stay with me. Of course every grad wants to actually find a job and USE their degree, right? I am definitely in that boat. I do enjoy my job, very much especially the people (with some exceptions), however, I want to work more with students and either do advising or financial services (financial aid) counseling of some sort. Well, what do you know...I played my cards right and I got a new job! I am going to be a Student Financial Services Advisor at WSU starting June 9th.
Going back to my roots. Holla! Go Cougs! It's definitely something different, but I get to work with students, I get to advise and counsel them about their financial aid and make sure they know what to do once they graduate. It's an exciting new adventure for me and for Will, but I am so excited to take this next step.
So there you have it. That's what nutty stuff has been going on in my life. Did you know, that I am so so so so so excited to not have to do homework ever again?! Bring on real life!
A good friend posted an article titled "13 Things That are Totally Going to Change You in Your 30's" on Facebook and seeing as how I am quickly approaching the scary age of 30, I thought I'd give it a read.
I figured it would say things like "For females, your almost non-existent metabolism will completely disappear" or "adolescents will officially call you old and be embarrassed of you" or "You will feel old and tired all the time and your social calendar will soon be empty" or something crazy to that extent. I was pleasantly surprised that it was opposite.
When I was a kid, I had a plan of getting married when I was 26 and having kids starting at 28.....oh the fun blissful dreams of young Maja. I also wanted to be an interior designer, a journalist or a professional soccer player. Wow...I was so funny as a kid as I am not even close to any of those!
I do think it's funny how people freak out about turning a certain age. It's always the "big" ones like 30, 40, 50 and 60 that seem to cause anxiety for individuals. Now maybe I am naive, but as of now, I am stoked to be 30! Not for any particular reason....I mean, 29 was a fanfreakingtastic age and year for me, Maja Gillespie :), but honestly, am I where I thought I would be at 30? Absolutely not. Am I upset or disappointed about it? How can I be? God had a different plan for the adult Maja than the young Maja had for me. I am so glad I am where I am today...
I have a feeling that 30 will be one of the best years of my life. So many new experiences, so many changes and so many unknowns that will be what WAM call life. I am so happy and content where I am at life and nervous/anxious/and uber excited to see what new doors, opportunities and surprises 30 has in store for me. I have an awesome husband that will make my 30th year one to remember.
To you 30, I say bring it on. We will be friends. I will embrace you and all the crazy you bring :)
So it's been a while. Like a couple of months a while. Do you remember me still? I am sorry for my lateness of this post. Please forgive me. I've been lost in the world that is graduate school...
This post should and could be an update of all the fun things I've been up to since my original post back in January, but again, I am human. And I have been chained to a lap top writing a thesis. Such is life...
For now, I will revert back to my New Year's Resolutions to update ya'll on those. The first and main thing on mine and Will's NYR list was to live a healthier lifestyle and to work out more consistently. Well.....ya. I can give you a 150 excuses, but none are good enough to justify why I do not have a smokin' hot body like Jillian Michaels. I just suck. I lose motivation quite quickly and ESPECIALLY in winter. I joke with my co-workers that I need my "winter coat" to keep warm. To be quite honest, we had a really cold winter this year! However, that is no excuse and swimsuit weather is just around the river bend....
I can happily say that Will and I are both on a regular workout routine and are eating MUCH better! Wahoooooo go us! It is amazing how one can get lost so quickly and fall to the dark side. It is also so crazy how when life gets busy, we (as in us, not society, not YOU, not anyone else but me and mine) let exercise fall out. We say, "we can always work out harder tomorrow." Hey idiot, wrong thing to cut out!!! When life gets busy, the first thing I cut out is my workout. Always. Silly Maj. Stupid Maj more like it. Did I mention I am really hard on myself? I am. Downfall #1. Well that may be true, but I love the fact that a good, hard workout is a great stress reliever. Let's be real, right now, stress relievers are one of the top things on my priority list ;)
For some daily motivation, I refer to The Berry via my smart phone. I love this site! It's mainly a photo gallery site that has funny, motivational and overall just fun photos for peeps to enjoy. I love the Daily Motivation gallery and here are some recent faves that keep me motivated:
One of my other goals I've been working on is reading a book a month. Again, this goal has been slowed down slightly because of working on my thesis. I have, however, finished two books and am in the middle of a third. Probably doesn't sound like much, but when you read a billion journal articles and write, read and re-write a thesis a million times a week, the last thing you want to do is read. Trust me. I don't even want to read the nutrition panel on a box of cheerios. It's that bad. As soon as I get done with my master's I plan to read all the time. Seriously. I already have books lined up for when I have copious amounts of free time. I am so excited! I would LOOOOOOVE any book recommendations you can give me.
Here are the books I've read:
January:
This is written by one of my favorite authors and she's not my favorite just because her last name is Weiner...ha ha. No, she is a fantastic Chick Lit writer. I thought for my first induction back into reading that I should read what I am familiar with. Wah wah. It was kind of disappointing. It was okay, but did not make me as happy and was not as entertaining as her other books.
February:
Have you read Heaven is for Real? This is similar in the respect that both main characters have an experience, near death experience if you will, that allows them to travel to Heaven. It's pretty remarkable. This book, however, is written from the perspective of a neuroscientist. A non-believer. Someone who does not believe in heaven, or God, or anything religious. It was an awesome book. I finished my January book on the plane, as I knew I would, so I bought this book at the Seattle airport before my flight. It was an interesting perspective into near death experiences and heaven from a scientific point of view. Definitely recommend this book.
March/April:
I am currently in the middle of this book. So far, I love it. I have already cried. It is sweet, loving and intense and full of frustration at the same time. I know there is more sadness to come, but it is a touching novel so far. Please don't spoil the ending if you've read it already.
Last March I had an "Around the Clock" bridal shower in Seattle. This kind of shower is one of my favorite types of bridal showers. The object is that each person receives a time of day with their invitation and they get a gift that the couple could use for that particular time. It's great to see how creative some people get with this....especially Ms. Adrianne Martin.
Now, the shower was planned by Emily Shoemaker and her mom Judy Borrow. Emily was strategic in assigning the time of day to my sisters and friends and gave them all evening/night times. I think she was getting me back for Marin giving Emily leopard lingerie at her shower ;) holla!
Anyhoo.....Adri was given the time of midnight. Which, one would think...bedtime. Something dirty? Something romantic? Emily thought she would go the dirty route, but Adri went with sentimental and romantic. Love! She got creative...heck, she is a designer-creativity is her job! When I opened her gift I found a bottle of champagne, noise makers and a memory jar. (with a fun polka dot lid in our colors! Point for Adri!)
The object of the jar is to write down memories of all kinds throughout the year and then read them at midnight on NYE. Now, I had pinned something very similar to this and loved the idea of having one, but never in a million years did I think that my hubs would ever participate in this. Yeah, no. Not his thing. I however, thought I would attempt to keep track of some WAM memories and write them down. I had a good handful in the jar.
Let's rewind to earlier this fall. W told me one night that he has a secret, but he cannot tell me. Seriously? Boy, why do you play these foolish games! You cannot tell me you have a secret and NOT tell me. I asked him about the secret. Who does it involve? Is it good or bad? Do I ever get to know the secret? He assured me it was good and that it involves us.
That was it. It drove me crazy...like when you bite your cheek and then keep on biting it throughout the day. Yes, that crazy.
So, after midnight on New Year's Eve, while watching Dick Clark's NYE special and singing along with Fall Out Boy and Jason Derulo, Will says, "Do you want to read the notes in our memory jar?" I said, "sure, but there's really not many. I am the only one who put things in there." Cue Maja's sad face. That's when the big secret was revealed.
W said, "Remember that secret I told you I had?" Me: "Yes......?" W: "Hang on." He left the living room and came back with a pile of folded up notes and memories from 2013. What the fox say?! Is this for realsies?? Not only did he write some fun memories down, but they were sweet, unlike his wife who put crazy and funny memories down. We obviously know who the romantic one is in the marriage ;)
What a great secret! Well played Willis, well played.
It was an awesome finish to 2013 and our first holiday season as Mr. & Mrs. Looking forward to the memories we'll make and create in 2014 filling up our memory jar!
Can you believe it is already 2014?! Holy cow....where did 2013 go??
This week marks a big week for me...if you can believe it, this week is my blogiversary! Wahoo! WAMalicious has been going, not as strong as I'd like, for a year now and I feel that I successfully completed my Challenge 2013: A Metamorphasis in Baby Steps resolution. How about THAT for sticking to a new year's resolution, huh?
Seeing as how it is January and that I am a HUGE, like Jay Leno chin huge, fan of new year's resolutions, I will happily share mine with you. Many people make resolutions, but do not complete them. As I was watching the TODAY show this morning, they had a segment on NY resolutions and one thing that helps people stick with their resolutions is to make them public and tell others. Just a fun tid bit :) This year W and I both did resolutions again and I made simple little cards for each of us so we could display them and look at them everyday...
Will
1. Learn to speak Spanish
2. Be less dependent on technology (mainly cell phone)
3. Live a healthier life... -work out regularly -eat right -get 6 pack back (ow owwww holla!)
Maja
1. Read one book a month for fun
2. Learn to play the acoustic guitar
3. Live a healthier life... -work out regularly -eat right -lose 30 lbs by end of 30 yrs.
My first goal, read one book each month might be a little hard this spring while I finish school, but I am going to do my best. It is a relaxing thing for me to be able to lose myself in a book and take a time out from the real world. I might be asking for some suggestions because I want to read a variety of books, not just my typical chick lit.
My second goal is one I have had for a while. If I hadn't decided to get a master's, I would already know how to play the acoustic guitar. The hubs bought me an acoustic guitar a few years ago for Christmas. He said he knew it was something that I had always wanted and I really wanted to learn to play, but it was also something I would never buy. In other words, it was a dream. He helped make my dream become a reality. Don't worry ya'll....when I can play, I will serenade ALL of you :) I used to want to play punk songs and Christian songs. Now, I would still like to play both, but W knows that my big goal is to learn how to play "Come On Get Higher" by Matt Nathanson (LOOOOVE HIM!). I would love to be able to play and sing to my future unborn kids some day and for W.
Next year's resolution: perfect angel-like singing voice.
My third goal is one that W and I both share, to live a healthier life. I was in great shape before WAM wedding and then life got busy again. I chose the easy, non-healthy route. Why? Because I thought that I was too busy. I made excuses. Tons of excuses. Ugh. It disgusts me. So, together, we are going to get back into a regular workout routine, which I started this morning. I got my butt kicked, but it was good! Also, our eating habits are going to change. We are making simple swaps and smarter decisions. We love to cook together, so this will be fun to cook healthy together!
The last part of my third goal is lose 30lbs. by the end of my 30th year. My bestie, Adri, is also participating in this challenge and is the one who inspired me. Kudos Age! The object is to lose 30lbs before you are 30. Seeing as how my 30th is coming right up, I decided to take the route Adri is taking, which makes absolute and complete sense to me: lose 30 while you are 30. Essentially I am tweaking it even more since I am not 30 until May, but who cares. I will start now and then by May 31st 2015 I will be 30lbs lighter and sexier....holla back! ;) This fits in with my health goal because I am making a lifestyle change rather than going on a diet. Ha. Diets are a joke. Seriously. So are pills. Joke joke joke. Ha. That's my opinion, if you disagree fine. Just don't tell me about it. :)
So. There you have it. My 2014 resolutions. I am excited to tackle these new challenges and am feeling motivated. Stay tuned for the good, the bad and the ugly experiences.
