I was afraid...

"I was afraid... I'd eat your brains.... cuz I'm evil..."




:)

Oh hey, look...

...I found one!

At the longhorns game. :)

why.. hello.

lauren who?! yes... i  know. i'd say i've just been too incredibly busy to post, but really that shouldn't be my excuse. i did have a month off from working... but i must say, i was looking for a job that entire month.. and have been sight seeing, of course.. exploring our new city.. so.. i was busy. i landed one, though.. a job.. and so our bills can now be paid. yippee!! jake too. we're responsible adults contributing to society again! well we're here in austin...

and it's A W E S O M E.

someone please tell me why i wasn't born here?! okay.. maybe that's because i was too busy being borned out on an island in american samoa. ya ya whatever... there's a saying here that goes something like this:

'i wasn't born in texas (austin), but i got here as soon as i could."

that sort of applies to me, i guess. except that i'm 25... er.. 26 now.. and i hummed and hawed through those first few years of my twenties. i could've moved out here sooner. but then i wouldn't have met the man of my dah-reams.. and austin wouldn't be as cool without the guy.

the trip out here was sooo loooong. sooooooooooooo looooooooooooooooooooong. and we were in separate vehicles. me being stuck with the meowing bug-cat. she chilled out after about the first 8 hours. uh huh. we arrived at our new condo and to our horror, the place was SO DIRTY. :( it's a pretty nice complex.. older, with a ton of trees and squirrels everywhere... but the owner had not cleaned the place! we were pretty disgusted. we had driven 11 hours that day (on 3.. yes THREE.. hours of sleep the night before) and then we had to head to the grocery store that night and pick up cleaning supplies. there was no way i was sticking my hiney anywhere near the toilets as they were. um ya... it was bad. but we conquered! and it's our home now.. we sort of love it. :)

every time we venture off to look at something new, we're in awe of just how cool this place is. the people are so incredibly nice, it's contagious.. and i've already picked up on all the 'ya'll talk' and bbq. let me tell you, they are serious about their bbq here.

we miss our family.. and friends, of course.. and i think it makes it harder knowing how much they'd all absolutely LOVE it here (and in my head i've been scheming of how i could get them all to move out here..). it's sure been difficult missing the big events that've been going on back home, too. this has been a really amazing experience for us, though... already. we depend on each other a lot more. it makes us appreciate each other a lot more, too.

so all in all, life is pretty darn good... jake has had a phone interview with the usaf and will be flown up to hill afb in a couple weeks for some tests. the possibility of the military is great and we're pretty excited.  we knew that our time here in austin would probably be short lived, but now that we've been here, we know that we'll want to come back one day. so who knows what the futures holds.

hopefully a few more adventures... :)

**so i haven't taken too many pictures with my good camera... don't ask me why. i really have been busy, okay?? but i stayed up after writing this post last night and put all my flip video clips together of our trip out here and whatnot. well, it isn't loading. guess it's too big. so i'll work on that. but sorry i don't have any pictures for you! maybe i'll get some on here soon..

jealousy & all that...

so the husband is in austin at this moment... finding us a place to live.

i've requested pictures at every juncture of his travels throughout the city... so i can live vicariously through them as i sit, confined to this desk of clerical drone-ism. dramatic? na...

it's a cloudy day in the wonderful, exciting, and weird city of austin. with humidity in upwards of about 90%. doesn't seem to bother jake much. he says that it isn't miserable as long as there's a slight breeze. so there's that. we won't have to worry about getting the ever present bloody noses of desert living. hooray for that!

i'm actually quite excited for our little texas adventure. it's an expensive little adventure (as in, we could probably move to europe on this same budget.. plane ticket included), but it's the right choice for us. who knows where we'll be in a year from now. probably in the military. so WHY NOT take off and enjoy life austin stylee for a little whiley?

anyways, all of that out there, i am feeling broad pangs of jealousy for the spouse's mini vaca without the wife. i know he misses me soooooooo muuuuuuuch.. he's got to, right? but i truly wish i were there with him. taking tours of possible future condo-homes.. having the first look at our new city.. having lunch at the south austin trailer park and eatery.. sounds delightful. soon, though. oh so soon. we'll be unpacking and nestling into our new place about three weeks from now.

so i guess i can survive until then. oh and i should probably insert somewhere in here that i do actually MISS my husband.. we've never quite been this far away from eachother before. when i got home from work yesterday, i found a note that he had left me. it went something like this:

going to miss you, sweetie.
i'll be thinking of you...
do some independent stuff and listen to all the music that i don't like.
love you lots,
jake

sweet, hey? ha ha. i never knew i had music he didn't like.. maybe i should run out and buy a lady gaga cd for just such an occasion.

cheers! xo lauren

ps. i started a tumblr account.. just to add one more thing to my pile of time consuming social medias. i sorta like that i can just have a random 'i feel like saying this today and posting this picture.. or i like this picture that i found while searching tumblr.. save for future use' outlet. link to it on the right side of this bloggity.

{ Divas and Dreams }

Have you ever visited this website? She has the most beautiful, girly, vintage, lovely and inspirational posts. I love them! She's currently doing a giveaway. The winner will receive an incredible gift box that'll include these little lovelies:

Yes, I'm entering to win it and you should too! 

Hope everyone's having a great day. It's Monday.. but I'm happy. Oxymoron type-o-day.

xo Lauren

Keep Austin Weird...

So a fellow blogger friend of mine recently moved to Portland, OR and posted an image of a sign there saying "KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD".

Austin, TX also has this motto.

And this is why we are moving there in October.

Okay, so maybe not THE reason we're moving there.. but it has something to do with it, I'm sure.

Most of you know about this move already, but I wanted to make the "official" blog announcement (even though I suck at updating this and surely everyone has given up on it..).

So....

here we come!!!

If anyone knows of anyone out there that would want to either employ us or lease a condo to us, please let me know.  :)

Alaska {continued}

The most incredible part of the trip was in Juneau. We took a helicopter and landed on a glacier!! I can not tell you how giddy we all were... walking on that ginormous chunk of ice took our breath away. Looking down crevaces 100's of feet deep stunned us into silence. It was the most amazing thing I've ever done.. and should be on everyone's 'Top Ten Things To Do Before I Die' list!!

I'm in a lot more pictures... but they're on my FIL's camera. :) Jake took this one..  ha ha.

It was rare for us, but Jake and I both enjoyed dressing up a little for dinner aboard the ship a couple of the nights. The food was INCREDIBLE... every meal was delicious and we overdid it every day with the desserts. Ohhhhh the desserts. I want to go back....

Relaxing with my honey was so nice... just being. Enjoying everything about Alaska! It was lovely to get away and have the freedom to let our minds relax. We had such a fun time being with Jake's parents and they did so much for us which I am truly grateful for. I will miss the 10 hot chocolates a day! Ha ha.. We will definitely do this cruise again one day. And you should do it, too!! :)

xo Lauren

Alaaaaska... {phoootos}

Sooo...... our vacation we had back in JUNE was amazing!! So beautiful, so relaxing, so adventurous, so blissfully happy, so ready to go back to Alaska now.. sheesh. Sorry this post is coming to you in AUGUST..

We flew to Seattle first and oh. my. goodness. how I love this city! The old buildings, the eccentric people, the farmers market, the GREEN... sweet perfection. We had perfect, sunny weather so I'm pretty sure people are lying when they say it rains nonstop in the Pacific Northwest. :)

The cruise ship was great... loved our stateroom! We were surprised to find that they upgraded us to balcony rooms and I about peed my pants when we walked in and I saw that.. :) I am missing that comfy bed and all of the hours I was able to spend reading for pleasure whilst cruising around.

Alaska is an incredible state.. and we only saw the Southeast part of it! Lush forests, tall mountains jutting right out from the sea, incredible glaciers.. and the wildlife! We didn't see any bears or moose, but we saw WHALES! Grey &Blue Humpbacks, ORCAS, and dolphins galore! Also saw some sea lions and seals swimming right up to the boat. One of my favorite things we did was visit an Eagle Rehabilitation center in Sitka, AK. We saw bald eagles up close and personal as you can see in these photos.. along with a Golden Eagle, Hawks, and owls. Amazing creatures.

{ to be continued... above. :) }

exhaustion

so i can barely keep my eyes open today. literally, they're burning to close...

.........zzzzzzzz.........

see!? i just feel asleep for a seccond!

haven't been sleeping great the last couple nights.. don't know what's going on. making some big decisions these days so maybe the fact that my brain is working double time has some relevence to the problem. all exciting decisions, though.. mostly..

i'm doing a photography workshop with some incredible ladies and learning from a huge inspiration of mine, sheye rosemeyer. i took her first course last year and this is the more advanced workshop. i am loving it.. feeling overwhelmed with the amount of talent i'm surrounded by there, but i'm also feeling the drive to achieve my dreams.. and it's wonderful. it's so easy to get complacent in life and just drift on through. one day, we'll look back and wonder where all the time has gone.. why our dreams were always pushed to the sidelines. jake and i are trying hard to change this in our own lives and will disclose our plans for the future to you all soon enough.

for now, i need to focus on the present.. go drink a diet coke. wake up. try to enjoy the fact that it's friday instead of being irritated by every person in my office today. yes, tired equals moody when it comes to me. at least i just shut my mouth and hide in my cubicle.. could be worse.  : )

ya'll enjoy yer weekend. xo

musicality

i've been MIA.
i apologize.

been crazy the last few weeks. i can't believe the 4th of July has come and gone already.

the cruise was kind of a blur. an amazing & incredible blur.. but a blur all the same. that post will come soon.. it's actually already been written, but pictures need to be inserted and i need to be home with an extra 20 mins in order to do that. so patience please.

i've been overwhelmed with the urge for musicality lately. i always listen to music... every second i'm in the car, all day at work, while editing photos.. i'll be at bbq's eating delicious food with perfect company, but am annoyed that there's no music in the background. i've been like this for as long as i can remember. i want people to ask me what new music they should buy.. or who my favorite bands are.. can they hear that song i've been humming all day.. it makes me happy. jake's been playing the guitar a lot lately.. learning dropkick murphys songs and mumford & sons. its delightful. i love hearing him strum.. while biting his lip in concentration. :)

so i just wanted to share with you some tunage i'm listening to these days. some new, some old.. all incredibly awesome. do yourself a favor...

check em out.

Alexi Murdoch

Angus and Julia Stone

*photo courtesy of viaductpromotions.co.uk

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

*photo courtesy of laist.com

I just really really really love Radiohead. All albums.

there are so many more.. i knew this was dangerous territory..

Stabbing Sensation...

'That's so Dexter of you, Lauren'. Okay so the title of this post has nothing to do with serial killers that can't help themselves when it comes to bad guys...
It's just been a day.
And really I was referring to the knot in my back that decided to take up residence on some nerve.. pinching it to death and causing me extreme pain. A frequent stabbing sensation every time I tried to move.
This was resolved on Friday, but the ache is still there to remind me of how utterly useless I was most of the day on Friday. Love those things that're completely out of your control... and just happen to suck. Bad. And on my day off with perfect weather.
End complaining.

The day has been busy, but productive and I'm wishing I could go home and play guitar for a few hours tonight.
No, I don't play the guitar very well and no, I don't play it very often.
But I'd like to.. and I wish I did. :)
Would be a good evening for it...

In other news, I'm reading an interesting book called The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. Mum suggested I read it (she made me).
She isn't a weirdy (not completely..) so when she visited last week and kept mentioning this book and how it impacted her... "If I hadn't read this book I'd look around this place (full of old memories..) and feel angst and a little sadness... but now I can look around and remember what great, positive experiences I had and how funny, sweet life is" (Yes.. this continued for most of the weekend)  I thought, why not? I could use some positive reinforcement when it comes to my thoughts.
I used to really be into books like The Four Agreements, The Mastery of Love, etc.. this book is similar as it helps you look at life a little differently.

I've been going through a few rough spots the last year or so... and have watched family members go through some as well... and I find myself getting down quite frequently. But lately I've had this feeling that won't go away.. kind of like the stabbing sensation that was too strong to ignore... to re-evaluate my life and how I should go about living it.
The book is just kind of fun, interesting to read... I know I'm the one who really needs to let go of some things and choose not to let stress get me down. No book is going to magically make the stress disappear (oh how i wish).. but it's nice to have a reminder that it's up to me to change things. Or to change the way I'm interpretting things.
Anyways.. just wanted to share some words on this subject. Have a lovely week, okay?

xo Lauren

Graduation = Vacation!!!

Well.. my husband boy is growing up. :) He's graduating college on Saturday and I'm SO proud of him.. and SO relieved that at least one of us did it right.

(Reeeeeeeeeeeeally hope we see one of these. Not up close.. of course. But don't you kind of want to hug him?) 

After five years of rugged scholastic-ness, we've decided to celebrate by heading up the Pacific to ALASKA.

Pretty ding dang excited! I'm not even sure if the reality of the gorgeousness we'll be seeing has even set in yet, actually. We're taking off in about 6 weeks- flying up to Seattle and cruising out of the Seattle port. I've never been to Seattle and we'll be spending a day there... so that in itself ROCKS.

So ya.. just had to share the awesomeness with you. Hope everyone is having a great Monday.  {um.. is that even possible?!}

My Love

Have I ever shown you this photo of Jake? Have I ever told you how much I love it? Rarely are his hair and beard ever this short at the same time... hehe.





i love us.