Spring Break, Day #3

My Spring Break checklist is near complete. I have successfully slept in (10am), eaten good food (sushi, Chick-Fil-A, In-N-Out, salmon, etc.), finished a book (Sea of Hooks - review to follow), spent time with my sister, watched movies, and caught up on my YouTube subscriptions. I have even had a little opportunity to study!

My sister has unfortunately had to return to work, but I have had the freedom to do all the lazy bits and bobs of a typical Spring Break. In fact, the majority of my checklist was completed today. What can I say? It's been an eventful Monday.

It is weird to think that I have one more day with my sister before heading back to Portland. She and I are mentally inseparable. Lately, what with me still being in school and with her working, it has been harder and harder to stay in touch. My schedule is, for lack of a more succinct way of putting it, not really conducive to my family's schedule.

I have always said I make time for those I love, but lately it is seemingly more difficult than normal. Times like this, when I can spend quality time with my family, I despair going back to school and the rigorous schedule I uphold. As much as I love nursing, growing up is hard.

Knowing that my family is a "weakness" of mine, I have conversely been able to use them as a strength. I know I can rely on them for support as well as motivation. I have several photos of them surrounding focal points in my room and look to them whenever I start to feel stressed. Of course, I pray as well, but it is nice to have a physical reminder to relax.

Anyway, I am determined to make the most of all the time I have with my family. If that means doing whatever they want to do or making all the arrangements, so be it. For the meantime, I will do what I want in preparation for spending quality time with them.

Spring Break, Day #2

I realize that though vacation is a time for relaxation (i.e. sleeping in and avoiding normal obligations), I cannot use it as an excuse not to attend mass. Thus, the first item on the agenda was to visit St. Norbert's Catholic parish. It is a lovely, small, parish community that is home to a fantastic choir. Not only did I enjoy mass itself, I thoroughly enjoyed celebrating with a companion.

Next, my sister and I went to get pedicures at a local nail salon. The Victoria Nail Salon was a little bit more expensive than I would normally go for, but I thought why not give it a go. The nail salon had a variety of complementary snacks and beverages as well as a plethora of magazines to choose from. The pedicure itself was wonderful. I chose the rejuvenating therapy pedicure which consisted of pumice scrub for calluses, a paraffin treatment for dry skin, and a full leg and foot massage in addition to the pedicure.

After our pedicures, my sister and I went to pick up groceries. My sister wanted to properly celebrate my 21st birthday with me, so we bought ingredients to make sonic screwdrivers. The drink is based off of a British science-fiction television series I am obsessed with called Doctor Who. A sonic screwdriver is very easy to make and it only requires three ingredients (I will do a post on it later). Needless to say, it is now my favorite drink.

One of the key parts of the day was my nap. It was a BRILLIANT nap! I slept from just after lunchtime until around dinnertime, missing a FaceTime session with my mom (sorry Ma!) and several episodes of Parks and Recreation.

For the evening, my sister made a delicious salmon dinner - which I will definitely replicate and post at a later date. We settled for the evening to watch About Time and Thor: The Dark World. I loved About Time and thought the special effects of Thor were awesome! I would definitely recommend both movies.

Thankful Thursday, Pt. 4

This week has been very... taxing. I've been doing various adultly tasks and have been spending loads of time with my family which has all been wonderful, but in the meantime I have obviously neglected to blog. I apologize. Hopefully this coming week will be better. Now onto Thankful Thursday!

Oh my... So much to be thankful for today. As usual, my family is at the top of the list. I have been spending most of my time with my mother and seeing how she constantly looks for the needs of others is something I am very thankful for. I think I get my generosity from her.

I am also thankful for my brother and his sense of joy. Sometimes it will express itself in humor, other times in hugs, and other times in words. For instance, this morning on the way to school he teased me and upon returning home he hugged me and said he missed me. It is the moments in which I share in his joy that I am truly grateful for him. Not to be overlooked, I am also thankful for my sister who makes my day (pretty much every day) by her thoughtfulness.

I am also grateful for the local law enforcement officers. I ran into a few of them at a Starbucks and realized that I was actually glad to see a group of them chatting over their espressos. As one might imagine, they have a hard job and seeing them in a different light was refreshing and a reminder to be grateful for my safety.

The aforementioned are only a few of the things on my list of gratitude today, but they are the most important things to me at the moment. I hope that one day I might finally be able to list all the things I am thankful for, but for now, these short Thankful Thursday posts will have to do.

Sister Bonding Time!

My sister and I weren't always close. In fact, I have a very distinct memory of me thinking, "Well she's graduating this year. I suppose I ought to be nice to her." She was graduating 8th grade - and to me that was a big deal. I'm two and a half years her minor, but despite the age difference, I still consider her my younger sister. Toya (my nickname for her, pronounced "toy-uh") is not only sillier than me, far more creative than me, but shorter than me as well. That being said, I look up to her very much. 

Outside of the salon with our newly manicured nails.

Anyway, Toya and I don't get to hangout by ourselves very often. With a large-ish family like ours, it's hard to have any alone time together. Today we decided to get French manicures at Unique Nails in Tacoma. Toya had never had a French manicure before and we had decided to splurge a little and get gel manicures, so it was exciting. I was grateful I got to experience another "first" with Toya. What I mean is, Toya and I are leading physically separate lives now. She's finished with college now and I'm still traveling back and forth between home and college. She's entering "real life" now and I realize it will be harder and harder to spend time with each other, despite all that technology and social media has to offer. It's not like we're going our separate ways - we're still family, of course. It just makes me appreciate the little things, especially the "firsts" that we haven't experienced that we wouldn't normally experience together now that we're older. Plus, I will definitely miss having someone to be ridiculous with!