Christmas and NYE

Christmas time in Illinois! It started with the celebration of Lizzie's birthday on Christmas Eve. Mom made a delicious dinner and some delectable desserts. We started a new tradition of shots of rumchata! YUM. And towards the end of all that Anna skyped us! So we actually got to spend some time with her on Christmas Eve. :) Then we opened presents (and everyone got what they wanted, of course)! And by that time, since I had worked that morning, I was exhausted and hoping I wouldn't be so tired the next day. So Max and I packed up all of our new toys and headed home with Storm.

Skyping with Anna! 

Christmas day started with us going over to the O'Neill's casa and having a wonderful breakfast that Janine made. Great way to start the day plus lots of mimosas! 

After breakfast we opened presents in the living room. Max and I got some really big ticket items like a new TV! Amazing! Once again we had to pack all of our new toys in the car and bring it home so there would be less to carry, plus we borrowed Janine's car cause our little dinky ones wouldn't have fit all the stuff we would have needed it to. After all that and some sobering up work getting the TV in the house, we were off to my grandparent's house for lunch and more presents and more mimosas!

One of the girls got some colorful chalk that you can rub on your hair to make it pretty. We got a little carried away.. haha And below was me trying to do a panoramic view of the family but it was hard to do cause when people moved around they got distorted. But you get the picture. 

~Marybeth~

Sweater: Gift (Banana Republic

Skirt: Forever 21

Tights: American Eagle

Shoes: Ross

Jacket: Rue 21

Belt: Forever 21

Necklace: Forever 21

Then the rest of the week carried on as usual. We couldn't decide what to do for New Years Eve and I feared it would be a total dud. But in the end it was great! Max and I went to get massages for our anniversary. Two hour long massages and it's never enough! This year I got to spend NYE with Kaley, who I haven't spent a new years with since high school! Her, Dana, and Kelsey came over and we played pool and took shots and we decided to go to St. Charles to bar hop down there since it's a really fun spot in down town St. Charles and really cute too. Very busy but that added to the excitement. Max and his friends and family went to the Dutch in Elgin that was the place of Anna's going away party last year. I spent my midnight count down driving back to Elgin with Kelsey (I was okay to drive, don't worry) so that I could give Max our first kiss of the new year. We stayed a little bit so I could show her shuffle board, to which we lost gracefully... ;D Then Max and his friend Kyle decided to come back to St. Charles with us and so we met up with Kaley and Dana again and had a few more drinks before the bar closed. Then we came back to our house for some pizza and water before everyone went on their merry ways. 

~Marybeth~

Dress: F21

Necklace: Fashion Bug

Tights: F21

Shoes: Plato's closet

Random guy photo bombing. :(

Idk why she's so funny

New Year's day Max and I celebrated our four year anniversary. We got breakfast with his family in the morning and then we just hung around the house for a while. We took Storm and Maggie for a walk and got ready to go out to see the Hobbit! I had to cut Max's head out of the picture a little bit because the camera turned slightly when we took it so we were pretty sideways. Sorry, love! 

We had a great year and this year should be even better! Max should be finished with school by the end of summer and hopefully then we can start a new life in a new home that we can call ours. The future for my career is still a mystery to me but I'm really happy with grooming right now. Working full time is exhausting for me because it's a first but I don't even realize it while I'm working because it's so much fun. I've started to get a few requests too. That makes me nervous because I build it up in my own head to try to do it exactly like last time but sometimes you just can't! haha Also working full time really got in the way of enjoying Christmas time. The week before Christmas was so crazy busy, with people getting their dogs ready for the holidays, that I couldn't stop and look around and feel the Christmas spirit. Plus it's the  first year I've lived away from home. No smells of Christmas cookies being made or the hectic wrapping of presents, no presents spilling out from underneath the tree. It just didn't feel the same this year, plus I was missing Anna. I've come to realize that the Christmas spirit might not come back to me until we have kids of our own. We will get overjoyed and excited in their joy and excitement and we'll want to go all out in every way. This year there was no need to and it kind of made me sad. We're in that transitional period that it makes me want to grow up faster so I can start to act like a kid again, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, Anna comes home soon! I'm counting down the days and trying to figure out stuff to do for every day but all I really want to do is hang out in her bedroom with her and Pinot like we always used to do. Looking at crazy stuff on the internet and listening to music. I'm really excited for her to see the house though and she's going to stay here for a bit the weekend before my birthday. So happy she'll be around for my birthday too. Ah. I can't wait. Well, that's all I've got for now! 

<3<3<3<3,
Marybeth

A Tail of Two Cats

Ahh, puns...

What a tender moment captured between my Boots and me. He can be a real sweetheart. Almost obnoxiously so, when he crawls up by my face when I'm trying to sleep and nuzzles and licks my chin. Or when he climbs on my lap when it's clearly occupied by a laptop. He can be funny, when he jumps and tries to shimmy up the door frame towards the light switch I just touched. Or when he runs circles around me while I drag a mouse on a string around me on the bed. He also puts up with me when I pick him up like a baby, either under the armpits or cradled on his back, or when I scoop him up and spin around dancing with his legs flying out from the inertia.

But sometimes he can be a real pain in the ass. He bites me everyday. Not in an aggressive way, in a playful way, but it's really obnoxious. I had his front paws declawed soon after I got him. I had him neutered too, since he was still fairly young, not yet a year. I think maybe that's why he bites, to compensate for the lack of claws, but I had hoped his crazy antics would settle down after he was fixed. I haven't noticed any real change. I've had cats for forever, and I've never had one as naughty as this one. I've also never owned a male cat either, though. Maybe that has something to do with his energy and destructive personality. I also hoped age would settle him down. He just turned a year this month (so says me, since when I got him in June, and his past owners told me he was 6 months old), and he's still pretty much the same. Maybe he needs some more time, and some healthy discipline (I've tried so much. I'm on squirting him with a water bottle now, a couple weeks in..). I'm still hopeful. I mean, he loves me, he just doesn't RESPECT ME. Ugh, he's like a teenager... I assume...

-Anna- 

dress: H&M

sweater: Old Navy

shirt: The Gap

tights: 8 Seconds (here in Korea)

necklace: American Eagle

bow: hair (cool, right?)

here comes the attack....

Ahhhhh!!!

Boots! Why you attack me!?!

A well, we'll keep pluggin' along...

So, I'll be coming home for three weeks at the end of January until mid February and I couldn't me more excited! There are so many foods I want to eat and places I want to go see and foods I want to eat.. oh, yes, and my family of course, I can't wait to see them... so they can go with me to all the restaurants I want to visit... 

Also, my girl, Pinot. Pinot is my cat. She's my baby and I'm her mama. Almost two years ago, Bette found this little darlin' and took her home (as she is known to do). For the full story, read here. So, once I graduated, I got to take my girl back home with me! We lived a glorious 7 months together, until I decided to move to Korea, and not take her with me. I figured it was too much of an ordeal getting her over here, and I knew she was happy and welcome at home with my parents where she could roam around outside (she definitely needs that, and she would definitely not be able to get that here). But I am so excited to be reunited with her again very soon! I hope she still remembers me and loves me and missed me as much as I her. 

 

I'm comin' home, baby!

BYE!

Anna

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey

Hello, year two thousand and thirteen! twenty thirteen! 2013! Did you know this is the first time since 1987 all the numbers in the year are different? Weird, right? And what's also weird is the fact that Marybeth and I have had this blog for over a year. Woah. We sort of missed our blog birthday in October. Were we supposed to do some kind of ritualistic ceremony? I sure hope not. We can slaughter a hot dog, or something, when I get back to the states, if you want, Bette. Or we can carry on, and damn the blog gods.

 -Anna-

shirt, skirt: thrifted HERE in KOREA 

(a tough thing to manage. like, really thrifted, not just old shit sold for too much. this ensemble, minus the tights, was 6,000 krw, which is like $6. my kind of stuff.)

tights: (doubled up because it's cold) black, h&m and navy (like you could tell) stolen from Marybeth

"pearl" necklace: thrifted

"pearl" earrings: icing

cat: Korea

Now I'm going to reflect on the year past and year to come because it's half my blog and I want to. So pipe down or get out! .. No, no, stay. It's nice here. Ahem. 2012 was good to me. I wasn't sure there at the start, worrying about getting out here, to Korea, to teach. I was living with my parents (whom I love and loved living with, by the way) after graduating college with a liberal arts degree, wondering what sort of year was in store. It was nerve racking not being sure of your future, as I'm sure any recent graduate (or perhaps some adults) can attest to. Gosh, all this growing up. I did my fair share in 2012, which I'm sure I can and should say ever year, but this year was my first full year out of school, in the real world, getting a job and having a salary and living on my own and not writing last minute essays at 3 in the morning.

I also ended a two year relationship with my first long-term boyfriend. In coming to Korea, the change and distance were finally enough reason for me to end something important, but exhausted. And that new freedom had the added bonus of allowing me to explore and have fun doing things I wouldn't have been able to do had I been in a relationship. Nothing has stuck like Cole since Cole, and quite frankly, I'm okay with that. Long distance relationships are hard, and I don't envy anyone who has to deal with one. I'll be leaving soon after 2013 ends and I don't want to worry about who I'm with and where we'll be going. All I should manage is myself, for now, until I'm in more stable situation. But then again, who am I to argue against the gushy-mushy-good-time feelings and their (sometimes tricky) implications? Ah, let's just see what 2013 has in store.

chris, greg, and me, the daewoo crew (as our apartment building named daewoo), out for new years. we had a fun night at our most frequented restaurant and bar. then we hit up a nori bang (singing room or karaoke) and rang in the new year there. it was my kind of night!

So now, what about 2013? What are my hopes for the upcoming year? I'm not really one for resolutions, because it shouldn't take a new year to make a new you. But I do have life resolutions and goals I'd like to achieve, so I'll state those.

I'd like to continue to be happy, healthy, positive, and hopeful. I have control over all of those things, and I'd like to maintain that. I need to create more. I need to draw more and I need to write more. I need to connect more with the people I love and value. I don't do it enough, and I'll wish I had when I don't have them anymore. Similarly, I will apply the lessons learned from the mistakes I made with past relationships, be in any form, to my future ones, as best I can.

I don't know about this blog though. I won't make any promises about it, but that's okay. It's nice to have here sometimes. I have pictures I'd still like to share, and this can be more personal than facebook. I can say more here, open up more, explain more. So it stays, but in varying degrees.

And to you! Reader! I hope your year is a successful one, however that applies to you. I hope you're happy. I hope you're healthy. I hope you are rewarded. I hope you fail, but just enough so you can learn and grow. I hope you make it to 2014!

Sweetly and sincerely,
Anna

p.s. I've been watching a lot of Doctor Who lately. Like, a lot. Maybe it's rubbing off on me. The skirt is sort of Tardis blue, and the stripes, kind of like the windows? And I have myself a companion? I even have my own galaxy of stars in my room. And, I mean, I am a bit of time traveler since I made it to 2013 before anyone else in the states... Eh? Eh? No? Just me?

Turning 24

wheeeere have i beeeen? i haven't been feeling very up to blogging for the past month or so. i kept putting off my mom's visit post and now it's been a month and a half since she left. i have been taking pictures though, and i have a small stockpile of photos and outfits to share. i didn't want to post them, though, until i took care of my mom's post and that never happened and blah blah blah....

anyway, something else has come up that's worth sharing. my birthday, of course! that's right boys and girls, i make my triumphant return to the blog talking about a day dedicated to my existence. i am one of my favorite people, after all...

but seriously, you only turn 24 once. aaaand i bought a new dress. two, in fact. here's one:

-Anna-

dress: H&M

sweater, tights: The Gap

boots: gift! Sorel

headband: gift! knit by my mama!

button: antique show

necklace: Flapper Doodle pendant a la Scathingly Brilliant's Etsy

i had an absolutely wonderful birthday, one of the best. school was a breeze on wednesday. four of my 6th grade girls came in to my room, told me to close my eyes, surprised me with a pyramid of cookie pies complete with birthday candles, and sang to me! it was so heartwarming! then i had my last kindergarten class of the year. one class made me flowers and the other gave me a party hat. best of all was when they all gave me hugs ^^

after school, i grabbed dinner at a nearby galbi place with a few friends from my building. we got some mekju and soju in us (beer and, well, soju), and then headed to woodstock on the other side of town. woodstock is this great little lp bar with tons and tons of old records. and it's run by this sweet little korean man. so we drank some drinks and listened to some tunes and had ourselves a grand time! it was so nice to have everyone together and happy and it made me happy and so thankful. it made being away from my family and friends at home a little easier.

so many faces

super cool, right?

so thanks for the laughs and the beers and the cards and the gifts and the love i received this year from everyone who thought of me today. or rather, yesterday. round two this weekend! let's see if my person and anything else i take with me makes it safely home and in one piece.

over and out!
anna

oh! and did you notice? i dyed my hair! i went for an ombre thing... i like it.. but it's strange looking down and seeing a different color. i've never had my hair dyed before, but i was in need of a mini makeover, so it's fun having a sort of new accessory to play around with.