It’s been a crazy few weeks but things are starting to settle.

A week and a half ago, I received my MSLIS (Master in Library and Information Science). Graduation was an exciting day but also a day of saying goodbye to some very good friends. I miss them all so much but I know we’ll see them again.

The day after graduation we moved the rest of our stuff from the apartment in Illinois to our house in Kansas. It was probably the least stressful move I’ve ever experienced. (I’ve only moved six times in the last 13 years.) We’ve begun to settle into the house with some boxes still remaining in the downstairs. The upstairs attic (future craft area and spare bedroom) is still full of boxes and needs some serious work. One of the challenges of moving into this house has been going through my aunt’s belongings and making room for our own.

Two days after our move, I started my new job as the Teen/Youth Coordinator at one of the local libraries. I love my new job and it still doesn’t seem real that I’m an honest to goodness librarian. I’ve been planning activities to go along with our summer reading program which has been a lot of fun. Today literally flew by.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I worked a lot in the garden. It’s now 95% planted with peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, peas, butternut squash, onions, herbs and we’ll soon be adding peanuts. We also put in two raspberry bushes in the backyard with one more to add later this week. The gardening has been so fulfilling and I can’t wait to find out how plentiful our harvest will be. I think we’ll probably have lettuce in the next couple of weeks.

This past week has been an amazing week. On Saturday, after being an audience member for three previous years, I was a teller in the graduate school’s annual Storytelling Festival. It was such a great experience though I was a bit more nervous when I got on stage than I expected to be. Thankfully, my fellow tellers were in the front row and I was able to look at them and feel more comfortable. We were all in this together and they were so supportive. I feel honored to be included in a group of such amazing tellers.

Despite forgetting to turn my microphone on, I felt quite good about my story, “The Three Fairies” a tale from Puerto Rico. It’s about three fairies who come to the aid of a girl at her wedding dinner after her mother has lied about her abilities to sew, spin and embroider to her future husband.

Sunday, we packed up a lot of our apartment to take to Kansas City. Tuesday, I had a job interview and was offered the job. I’ll be the new Youth and Teen Coordinator at one of the local libraries in the Kansas City area. I’m so excited about the job and it all happened so quickly that it really hasn’t fully sunk in yet.

There are only two more weeks of classes before I finish my Master’s degree in Library Science. It feels quite surreal that something I’ve thought was so far off (getting my MLS) is really truly here.

Garden update: The seedlings are doing well and growing so big. I planted zinnias two weeks ago and they are about three and a half inches tall. It’s really amazing to me how quickly they have sprouted. Bryan is working on getting the garden ready to plant lettuce and peas. Once I move we’ll put the seedlings in the garden.

Okay, so maybe spring isn’t officially here except the calendar says it’s here. It snowed on Monday and has been chilly the last several days. Will winter ever leave?

(Dahlia seedlings three days after planting)
Spring feels like it’s trying to get here. There may be flowers outside but inside is where the exciting things are happening. Little seedlings are trying to grow big and strong in their little pots in my office. This morning as I was getting ready to water them I noticed three little plants have already pushed through the soil. When I came home from work there was another one starting to come up.

The semester is wrapping up quickly and it’s all making me quite nervous, excited and sad. Nervous and excited because something I’ve wanted for nearly five years is all coming to an end. There were months I hoped to get into library school and in about six weeks I’ll be graduating with my MLS. And also sad to be leaving so many great friends. Some are starting off on their own post-grad school adventures while others will give us a reason to return for visits.

Wow, 500 posts. It’s hard to believe this ol’ blog has been a part of my life for almost seven years. (April 18 will mark exactly seven years.)

This weekend was the Fairy Tale Ball at one of the local libraries. I volunteered to read stories and several friends and classmates volunteered to do other things at the Ball. It was a lot of fun and the fortune teller, who I happen to know was fabulous.

I’d spent a good part of Spring Break wondering if I would find a dress that was perfect. The first store my mom and I walked into and the second dress I tried on was perfect. I didn’t even need to hem it.

Friday afternoon, I whipped together my head garland in about an hour. I bought several stems of “silk” daisies and leaves at Hobby Lobby and twisted them around a bridal headband that I bought. It truly turned out better than I expected.

A couple of classmates said we should wear our Fairy Tale outfits more often. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a plan to wear them to one of our upcoming classes. Oh the joys of being a future children’s librarian! Now to just get the degree and a job.

This weekend I also started peppers, tomato, herbs, dahlia and echinacea seeds for our future garden. It’s a small portion of what we have planned for the garden. Bryan is working on getting the garden prepared for planting. We’ve found out that soil in Kansas City has a lot of heavy clay in it. Poor Bryan found that out the hard way yesterday after trying to pull up the sod. Looks like we’ll be paying someone to till up the soil for us.

This spring will probably not be remembered as the learning-to-keep-myself-in-check season, but it probably should be. Bryan has always been a good balance for me and when I start to get a bit overstressed or over-analytical, he always seems to remind me of the wonderful things we have. Turning 35 this past December was a real wake-up call for me that I needed to take better care of myself, the number sort of jolted me, especially knowing we would be living apart for five months. I’ve incorporated yoga into my life in a way it’s never been before. And I’ve been learning to just enjoy being quiet, though my mind does get the better of me a lot. Daily journaling continues and is a way for me to purge everything at the end of the day. It’s all been an adjustment and I’ve had my moments where I’m ready to pack up and just move. Bianca has been a huge centering element too. She keeps me in line and gives me a lot of kitty loving exactly when I need it.

Last week, I spent my Spring Break with Bryan and visited my family in Kansas City. Coming back was difficult but it’s made me realize how special my friends here are to me. I know have a very finite time here and I’m also preparing to finish up a library degree that for so long has felt so far away. Now we’re looking forward to living together again and the amazing things that come with having our own house with a huge yard. Last week I plotted out our garden - 10 feet by 30 feet. Bryan came home and immediately said, “That’s it?” The yard of our new house is huge and a 10 x 30 foot garden looks like a very tiny piece of the yard. I have a feeling we’ll be planting lots of flowers and berry bushes so there is less yard for Bryan to mow.

I may be in the middle of a busy semester but that doesn’t stop me from dreaming of sewing. My mother and sister bought me some wonderfully beautiful fabric while my mom was visiting my sister in Singapore this past Thanksgiving. I’m starting to feel the itch to make some cute tops out of the fabric but getting my reading done each week for class doesn’t allow me a lot of time to sew. Even with listening to several as audiobooks. As May approaches and my packing has to increase, I’m hoping that I can squeeze a bit of sewing time in. I have several patterns that will make great little tops and even traced a couple of patterns from a Japanese pattern book that my friend Sarah owns. I’m hoping that this weekend, I can sneak in a bit of sewing time.

In my last post I mentioned that I’d made a book for Bryan and I to write letters to each other. I got the idea from my friend Laura who had a made a book so that she and another friend could exchange letters in book form. Her book was so cool with paintings and drawings that I decided that was perfect for Bryan and I.

After his quick (surprise) visit a few weeks ago, I knew I had to make the book and send it off to him. That Sunday I worked all afternoon binding and casing (gluing the cover on) the book, along with casing my reading journal.

This letter writing book was an experiment in several ways - doing a multiple needle stitching binding while having only one needle on hand, using fancy handmade paper that’s several different papers laid together to form one sheet and also doing corner coverings.

It turned out better than I expected and I was in complete awe of the book when I was finished. I don’t know how many times I would look at it while it was drying just to make sure that the paper hadn’t rippled or that there were any glue spots.

Yesterday when Bryan received it in the mail, he called me and left me a message about how beautiful the book was. Then I knew that it wasn’t just me, he loved it too.

It’s been a while. I’ve been trying to keep myself busy with class work, work, volunteering and reading. Classes started on January 20 with Young Adult Literature and Storytelling. It’s been a good start to a final semester. But I’ve had a hard time keeping myself motivated while living alone. I just find so many ways to distract myself.

To add to it all, life has been feeling a little off-kilter lately. When I lived by myself (before I moved in with Bryan) I thought of myself as an independent woman with momentary lapses at times. After I got married, I still considered myself pretty strong and pretty independent until last month. I think it’s learning to live alone again while also having your spouse five hundred miles away. I was sort of dreading Valentine’s Day but it was fine. I saw Coraline a second time with knitting friends and pampered myself with a haircut. Bryan definitely made up for not being here.

Bianca definitely enjoyed the flowers too.

Between the time Bryan moved and the beginning of classes, I knit quite a lot on Bryan’s Saddle Shoulder cardigan. When he left at the beginning of January, I had about four and a half inches finished and I’m at nearly 16 inches. Then I have the pleasure of figuring out the sleeves and where in the pattern to start them so they will meet up perfectly with the body.

After seven winters of my cute fall colors flower hat, I decided it was time for a bit of a change. I saw the cover of Boutique Knits and sadly our library didn’t own it until just last week. So I figured out my own version of the cloche on the cover. It was a lot of trial and error as I only had about 115 yards to work with. I reknit it several times before I was happy with it. One problem was I ran out of yarn and the hat was just too big.

A couple of weeks ago I decided it was finally time to case a book that I bound this past fall. It’s my new reading journal and once it was dry, I quickly started to fill it with all of the books I’ve read since I finished my last reading journal. I also bound and cased a book for Bryan and I to write letters in to each other. He hasn’t received it yet and I want him to receive it in the mail before I post photos of the book. I have to admit I think it’s the most beautiful book I’ve ever made.