Julia

She smiles so big. Her eyes have stories behind them and if she's in the right mood, you can see everything she's thinking. I sometimes think she's a genius but she is too young to talk. She is so mellow most of the time and is pleased when she's fed and gets enough sleep. That's all she needs. She's my little napping buddy and my cuddle girl. She's starting to play with toys and make cute noises. I made her laugh this week. I could talk about her forever and I will because she's my favorite. Sometimes she's my best friend and her little hugs are all I need to improve my day. She's my goddaughter and my cute niece. She's my Julia.

Project 365

One of my friends did this 365 day challenge to take a picture every day of whatever happened that day. I have started this challenge a few times but I think it will be easier to take pictures this year so I hope to do this in 2013. I will post them on facebook. I just hope I can last!

Looking back on 2012, I have some pictures that show what I did. They mostly are mass amounts of photos taken on a single day rather than one per day. My graduation day, my spring break trip, visits with my nieces, etc were all great memories but what about that random day in April when the flowers started to bloom? Or when it was boiling hot in July and I couldn't think about taking a picture? These times are random but could be fun to remember.

Post Grad

It's been over two weeks since I graduated and I still don't know how I feel about it. It hasn't truly hit me yet because everyone else is still on holiday break, but I'm sure when they go back to school and I see Facebook and Twitter blowing up with "ugh I don't want to study for this exam" banter that it will hit me. I have no definite plans yet, only to hopefully go to graduate school and see where to go before and after that. I have only met a few people who know exactly what they're doing and I thought they were crazy. On the day of graduation, I met a girl who said this, "Well, I'm graduating today and then getting married in one week. After that I will go on my honeymoon and then get a job teaching MCAT prep classes because I did really well on the test in addition to getting a 4.0 in college. I will support my husband while he finishes up his undergrad and then go to medical school and he will support us then." My jaw dropped upon hearing this. Good for her, but I have met very few people who have their lives planned out to that extent. I once heard someone say that the people whose lives are not planned out and who travel on winding paths are the happiest in the end and I hope to be one of those people.

For now, I'm snuggling and taking care of my nieces and living with my sister. Every time I would come home to visit them I kept thinking how awesome of a life that would be. I know I will get sick of it and should get some sort of job to start paying back my loans, but that has been on the back burner of my mind since I graduated. I have searched a little and should do more, but being a bum has been fun for now. I have gotten emails from some of the graduate schools in which I applied and hope to hear back from them before March. Perhaps I will travel to visit them at some point this spring. I still can't decide about Nicaragua. So many life choices.

Christmas Shopping

My family often celebrates Christmas long after everyone else does. This is nice because you can score some awesome after-Christmas deals and think more about what to get for people. Needless to say, I felt very generous in my gift giving. Perhaps too generous after looking at my credit card and seeing how much I really spent. I should have thought about the gifts more and home made more of the items. That would mean more and be more thoughtful. Maybe I will next year. I would have to start now to think of ideas, though, as ideas often come and go as they please.

People were also very generous to me this year. My family was talking and everyone is in debt in one way or another, mostly through student loans, but we all tried to do something nice for the others in our lives. I always feel bad when people get me nice things, but I guess I deserve some nice things but feel bad when others buy them for me. Then again, I have been trying to get rid of "things" and clutter in my life and have 4 large garbage bags full of old clothes and other items to give to Goodwill, which will inevitably lead to my sister and me going there to purchase new items.

I guess Christmas is about giving and receiving joy, however you may interpret that.