When I Grow Up...

Can I just tell you that today I made my very first loaf of homemade bread!?

I was so excited.  I love, love, LOVE homemade bread.

For our wedding, we got a bread-maker from my dad's sister's family

and the first time I used it, about 2 1/2 years ago, my bread looked like this:

Complete disaster.  

Well, I'm one of those people who gives up entirely after one failure

so, the bread-maker has been sitting on top of my cabinets for about 2 1/2 years.Until today, anyways.  Turns out I was not using the right kind of flour OR yeast. So my amazing mother-in-law (who is like homemaker-supremo) gave me some yeast and

her grandma's bread-maker bread recipe.  I was scared to try it out.

But, luckily, it didn't turn out to be a disaster like I thought it would!

I would take a picture to show my accomplishment, but

we already ate half of it and I don't know where my memory card is...so,

you will just have to imagine a nicely formed loaf of warm, fragrant, white bread...

mmmmm.

So, that was a little side note. Now, about why I'm writing today.

As you may know, I am now half-way through my student teaching.

That means in two more months, I will officially have

my bachelor's degree, and possibly a career.  

That means I will be making more

than minimum wage, and I will be able to afford nice things.  Like boots.

I have never owned a pair of boots.  

Well, snow boots, yes.  Dress boots, no.

I just can't bring myself to spend $40+ on a pair of shoes!!  

Why do they have to make them so stinking expensive?  

Let me explain why I NEED a pair of boots.

When you are a student teacher, you have to wear professional clothes.

When you wear professional clothes, you don't usually wear shoes 

that cover your entire foot.

When you student teach in Idaho in the winter, you walk through the snow

in flats, and then your feet are wet and cold all day long.  Not fun.

  So my birthday is coming up, and I wanted some boots.

I didn't care how expensive they were, I was getting some.  

I had a pair in mind that I had tried on at Target that were only $35.  Not bad.  

I was going to talk my mom into getting them for me for my birthday, 

and I'd even chip in 15 bucks 

so she wouldn't have to spend that much on me. 

 So I hopped on-line to see if they still had them in stock.  

That's when I stumbled upon these:

Hello!! Best part about it? They are on sale for $15!  

Haha, now that I have a pair of boots, 

I need some jeans to wear with them.  

So pretty much all day today I have been looking for some cheap 

skinny jeans, but to no avail. 

I can't bring myself to spend even $20 on a pair of jeans.  

So I'll just have to deal with all the boot-cut ones I have now.  

That means I have to make a few pairs of these:

source

Some cute boot socks made from old sweater sleeves.  I was almost headed to the D.I. 

as soon as I rolled out of bed this morning to get started on them, 

but I took one look out the window

and didn't care to brave the full-blown blizzard outside.  

And the boots won't be here for 2 weeks, so I've got time. Plenty of time.

So, why do I want to grow up you ask? 

My mentor teacher is always buying things.  Because she can afford to spend a few bucks here 

and a few bucks there.  

She's always telling me about the books she picked up

 from Barnes & Noble 

because they'd be a good addition to the classroom library, 

or how she's going jeans shopping after school.  

When I grow up, I'll be able to buy a pair of boots for $40 

without worrying about how we are going to eat for the next week.  

It will be great.

Here's another side note.  Brennen had his interview at ISU yesterday.

He said it was one of his favorite interviews that he's done

and he felt really good about it.  

The only problem is that he doesn't like

the school and he doesn't want to end up working in Idaho.

I know that I have been talking up moving to Mesa 

and getting out of this state,

but secretly I'm rooting for Meridian.

I know, I know.  

Call me crazy for wanting to spend the rest of my life in

this lone and dreary wilderness.  

But it would just work better with 

getting health insurance 

and do other things we are planning for this year.

Not to mention it's only 5 hours away from home instead of 15.

Well, we'll see next week if we got in or not.  

If we did, we have a big decision ahead of us--one of the biggest decisions 

we've had to make as a couple. 

 Welp. It'll be the first of many, I'm sure.