Slow and Steady Wins The Race

Firstly, today was memorial day...so, here are two of my favorite soldiers:

Hahaha. This is Jake (my bestest friend, of course! I'll marry him some day for sure), and Jeremiah (on the right). They were roommate's in Iraq and we love our Miah and his now-fiance Melissa.

I'm very proud of these two...but I'm really very proud of our military men and women in general. Including wives and husbands of soldiers. Military people go through a lot. They deserve to be recognized.

Secondly...my hair:

"Before"

"After"

All we did today was a color remover. We'll go back in later and do some bleach. Highlights or more. It really is quite lighter. The picture's don't quite do it justice.

Here's a creepy picture of me while Melissa was doing my hair:

She didn't have a shower cap, so she had to use ceran (spelling?) wrap. Doesn't it look so gross?

So right now my hair is a "work in progress." I feel like that's sort of the story of my life. My life is a work-in-progress. I am definitely a work in progress. I just kind of feel like I'm waiting for the time to "be right". I'm waiting so I don't ruin my hair. I'm waiting to have a wedding so we don't ruin our marriage. I'm waiting, I'm being cautious, and I'm trying to be patient. I know that I'm waiting so that things will be better in the long run... "slow and steady wins the race" type of thing...but it's just really hard to see that sometimes. Sometimes I just want to sprint to the finish line.

Ya know?

<3's,

Vic

Hair

I am getting very excited for my new "summer look." Not only have a recently gained "new" clothes and more dresses, but next sunday I'm getting my hair dyed. My bff, Lauren, already beat me to blonde highlights...but that's the plan for now. I want to end up being full-on blonde. My natural color is a light light brown, and I've had it dark brown since December or so. I've never been blonde blonde and I'm excited to try it. Plus, if it looks terrible it'll be easy to go to a different color, right? The thing I'm most worried about is the damage to my hair. My hair isn't very long...there's not much to cut off and I'm trying to grow it out. The phrase "Cutting off damaged hair" freaks me out.

Hairs (since May/August 2010):

Natural Hair Color

Blonde highlights. This is in the car before I cut my hair.

RIGHT after I cut and dyed my hair. Still in the Salon

Lauren dyed my hair "dark brown" and it looked black. I really liked it.

my hair has been various shades of brown, but this is the color it is right now.

The last one is a picture a took just two seconds ago.
I seriously can't believe those are all me. These pictures are my hair pattern in the last year. The first picture is the hair cut I got last may.

Pretty insane.

Full Swing

So, Summer seems to be in full swing. Maybe it's swinging a little toooo fast for my liking. I've been SO busy this week, and yet...the days are going by sooo much slower than they did when I was in school. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I'm just saying that it's true. I think that maybe I just want to enjoy my days and I'm not rushing to get to my weekends anymore, or something.

I've been working every day this week (evening shifts since saturday) and I don't get a day off until Friday, then back to work on Saturday. But I've also been hanging out with friends and doing stuff every day. I almost feel like I'm cramming too much into my time! I guess I didn't know that was possible. But now I'm feeling a little tired and I just want a day to do nothing. I probably won't get one of THOSE for...a long while.

Jake and I went for a four hour bike ride today before I had to go to work. It was so nice to get out and about with him. I'm not so sure he would agree with me, though, since his asthma was acting up the whole time pretty much. It was just a beautiful day, and I wanted to enjoy the sunshine with my man. Still, I don't regret it. Even though it made me more tired for work, I'm glad that we went. Yesterday I also went for a bike ride (by myself)...right after I went to the zoo with two of my friends from college and my friend Ashley's new baby, Dennis. If I could upload a picture of him from yesterday, I would, but my camera uploader-thing is still currently MIA.

that is Dennis and I the week he was born.

On to bigger news. This week has really been a whirlwind. Not only am I getting more and more excited for Summer and all the fun I'm going to have, but I've also decided this week that I'm going to move out of my parents house. I'm nannying for Jake's dad this summer and "watching" Jake's lil' sister Genna (whom I love to death and it won't be like real work, especially since she's 12. hah). So I was considering my options very carefully for what would be more convenient for my "Watching Genna." After looking at my options, and discussing things with Jake, I've decided to get an apartment with my friend Amber. She found out this week that she got into the masters program at Hamline University. We couldn't actually start apartment searching until she found this out, so...I'm pretty excited about how things have turned out, if I do say so myself.

There isn't anything much more exciting, in my mind, than moving out of my parents house. I did it once before, when I lived on Campus (Amber was my college roommate, thus how we know we can live together). I love being on my own and being independent and having a place to call my own, and it's going to be even more exciting/nerve racking this time because I'll be living in the "real world."

Other than that, my only other news is that I've decided to quit drinking coffee. Today is my first day...my head has a slight pinched feeling, but otherwise I'm ok. Mostly I'm just looking forward with immense anticipation for this summer and all the fun things I'll get to do and that I am starting to do already. Including having my own apartment for the first time in my life! =D

Accomplishments

I am Done. I couldn't feel happier about being done with this semester of school. I just want to take a moment to sigh in relief.

*sigh* (the gooooood kind)

It started out as kind of a gross morning today, but it sure has turned beautiful outside! I'm ready for the weather to make up it's mind and stay the same all day, instead of being rainy then sunny then rainy and so on. But I'll take whatever I can get!

Right now I'm sitting in Jake's living room with his dad listening to Christian music. It makes me happy inside. I am proud of what I've accomplished, even in one day! I got a lot of things done today and I'm feeling pretty good about myself. I took a final, I sent my poems in to FOURTEEN different magazines/websites for my Poetry class (which was my LAST homework for the semester! Woo hoo!), and I transferred all of the documents I need from my school computer to my personal computer (school computers get returned at the end of the school year...ah!).

And now I'm going to go read about motorcycle's until I have to go to work at five (I got my permit last friday, now I just have to learn how to actually ride!)...accomplishing so much with my day makes me feel SO GOOD. I wanted to share this positive feeling just in case it leaves me all the sudden...or something.

Have a good day, everyone. If you don't have to work, or even if you do/did...enjoy the sunshine!! I thank God every day for the moments of beautiful sunshine He gives me. =D

Sunshine on my Shoulders makes me Happy

I feel like I am more self conscious about what I write on this blog than on any other blog I've ever had. It's part of the reason that I don't blog as often as I have in a previous time in my life...the other reason is that I am often very busy. The funny thing about this semester is that most of the time I haven't been busy with school, even though I SHOULD be busy with school.

I'm going to try and not make this another rant about how terrible I've been about doing my work this semester, but it's just SO true and as things are drawing to a close (I only have one more day of finals after today!) I am sitting here and shaking my head at how awful I've been about my assignments this semester. My teachers know it, I know it...but I just can't bring myself to care. Anyways, I've already ranted about this so I am NOT going to rant about this today.

Today is all about how B-E-A-Utiful it is outside! I just love it so much! The sunshine and the humidity and just that warmth tingling on my skin makes me soooo happy. I seriously need to move somewhere that has sunshine most of the year. I get into quite the funk during Minnesota's winter months. Just ask my teachers that had me all year this year. They will vouch for the fact that I brightened up academically when the sky brigthened up as well. I am a little afraid that if I do move somewhere that's warm all the time, I won't appreciate it as much as I do right now.

I'm "friends" with Caribou Coffee on Facebook, and today they asked their followers what our favorite things about to do in summer are...there are so many I barely knew where to start! Summer is my favorite, favorite time of the year. I can't wait to wear bikini's and flip flops and summer dresses. But I also can't wait to go boating with Jake on our boat, and to go fishing and catch more big fish that I can be proud of. I want to go camping this year, and have bonfire's all the time, and jump on the Villavicencio's new trampoline, and go to the beach with Genna, or go for a bike ride, go rollerblading, take hikes over at minnehaha falls, go for walks with Dexter, or Kuba and Jojo. I'm just so excited to be able to be OUTSIDE.

Here's a picture of me and the HUGE fish that I caught last fall:

It's a tiger musky. It was six pounds (the hook it's on is the weight scale that Jake and his cousin Justin share).

Jake and I on the boat he bought from Justin (his cousin) last end-of-summer/ beginning of fall. I am SO excited to use it during the warm months.















What are some of your favorite things about Summer??

Melting into a puddle

Last night I did a crazy yoga booty ballet workout that just kills the glute and thigh muscles, but is sooo good for working out muscles that I don't work out very much. After I did that (as if I wasn't tired enough) I did this Pilates workout on a youtube page called blogilates...and man alive! My ab muscles hurt every time I move...or don't move! I actually love that feeling, because it lets me know that I actually worked them out yesterday. I've done both of these things before, and I was MUCH sore last week when I did them. That might be because I am gaining muscle, but I think it's more that I learned my limits last week and doing EVERYTHING that they do at the same pace they do is too hard for me. So I took it a little easier this week. I'll work my way there.

I absolutely love working out. I'm completely addicted to doing it and to the way I feel afterwards. I seriously can't get enough of it. I almost wish that I could work out every day, because there are so many different things that I want to try and to do, but I want to keep doing the same things as well. Unfortunately, #1 working out every day probably wouldn't be good for me, and #2 I don't wanna burn myself out to wear I give up on working out all together. That happened to me last fall. I was working out like CRAZY last summer... I would go to the gym three days a week and work allllll my muscles. Then in the fall I decided to just work one set of muscles every time I worked out...but I was still trying to get to the gym three days a week during a stressful school and work schedule. That was just too much for me.

So this semester I started working out at the gym once a week, and then doing other stuff the other days of the week-- at home, where I didn't have to go anywhere. I would do yoga or pilates or whatever cardio/muscle exercise I could think of. I would mostly just go onto youtube and do whatever it was that I could find. That's how I found the blogilates sight. The girl who leads annoys me a little bit, but her workouts are so worth it! They are SO hard and so amazing! I found out this semester that I also love love LOVE Yoga booty ballet. I did a dvd with my friend Amber at her apartment one day, and then the next week we weren't able to do it again so I looked it up on youtube and that's where I found my "JustDoYoga" people. I love their workouts too. I've only done their "gogo" workout, which I've done with my bestie Lauren, and their "Goddess Booty" workout.

I'm not so much for all the weird religious relaxation techniques involved in the yoga videos, but I'll do them my own way sometimes if I just feel like I need to relax.

OK, I'm done with my work out rant. I just wanted to share some of these great workouts with some of internet world. They really are great. I'm also having a lot of fun exploring this whole new (ok, so it's only new to me. haha) "Link" thing on my blog that Lauren told me about. I think it's awesome. Sorry if I over used it! But any of the text that's a different color on my page are actually links that you can click on to see what I'm talking about. =D I know it's raining, which makes me bummed...but have a good day anyways everybody!