lately

// hot husband and i on our way to game night // new hair //

// breakfast courtesy of my man cub //

// lunch // fall has arrived //

// afternoon walk in the park //

// taylor on another breakfast kick, woo hoo!! // fog on canal road //

Needless to say, my husband has been on a breakfast kick. This is a rare event in the Robinson household. In fact, in the last two weeks I have seen my sweet husband eat more breakfast than he has the entire two and half years we've been married! I love it, because it means I get cinnamon rolls and fancy-pants hash-browns with absolutely zero effort on my part! Love you husband!

Work last week was SUPER slow, so I had plenty of time to go on long walks in our "backyard" by me onsie. I must say, it was rather enjoyable! It is so beautiful here, we live right in the middle of a huge metropolitan city, but there is still plenty of nature for me to explore. We scored living so close to such an awesome park. I would guess its about five miles of uninterrupted forest trail. Which is pretty dang awesome.

One of my favorite things about work being slow, is that the past week I've walked to Taylor to school every day! [I like to say he walks me to the gym because its next door to the business building]

Its nice to get an extra 10 minutes with him every morning :) plus, and Taylor can confirm, I rather enjoy PDA, and that last smooch before me heading into the gym ,and him into class, well...it makes me one happy wife :)

instead of a cold goodbye

Last night I went in to work at 8pm. It was my first overnight interpreting experience, and it wasn't half bad.

The sun was making its way into the sky, slowly but surely, on my drive home around 7am. It was a brisk 65 degrees out and for the most part traffic wasn't horrible. Driving after just over 24 hours of no sleep is a must in my book, its when I do my best thinking, I discovered this morning.

I find it funny how much and how often people change. Become a hormonal teenager: change. Leave home: change. Start college: change. Start dating: change. Get dumped a few times:change. Get married: change. Move across the country: change?

Really I guess I prefer the word "evolve" because really that's what it is. We shouldn't be expected to always think "like ourselves" because we aren't always the same version of ourselves.

People say to me "you've changed" and to be honest, yes I have. And I am so thrilled about it! Who wants to always think the same, always BE the same person, day after day, year after year? Wheres the fun in that? I change because I realize I was wrong before, not because someone else "changes" me. I'm constantly realizing things I used to think were right, aren't quite. Things that I wasn't sure about a year ago, I'm sure about now.

Watching the DC fall start this morning; leaves painting themselves new colors, fog creeping out of the forest, the sun sleeping in a little bit longer than usual...well, it really got me thinking about change, and thinking about how truly important it is.

The whole point of this life is to learn, to grow...you can't grow and not change. Shoot, you can't LEARN and not change. Its damn near impossible, as it should be!

I love change, I embrace change, and I am so excited that I married someone who is as open to it as I am. Not many people are, I'm afraid.

Here's to fresh starts, and sweet endings...to change :)

back of my mind

Work: Could be more organized, maybe freelance interpreting isn't for me, my life needs a schedule. However, it is nice to just not accept jobs on the same day my best friend has off from her job, makes hanging out SUPER easy! Plus, they're paying me, and not poorly. I should stop whining, huh?

D.C. Traffic: I honestly would rather have a thousand daggers thrust into my body than drive in D.C. traffic, which is inevitable because there is never NOT the worst traffic ever here! [disclaimer: I do not in actuality enjoy having pain inflicted on me, the above comment is a dramatization]

"Why don't you take the Metro": NO

Weather: I'm dying people! And I mean the good kind of dying! It is so lovely here, and fall is coming, so its getting even better!

Husband: Is the sexiest man alive...still :)

Honestly, I am so happy we're here. Sometimes I think of wake boarding, or Camelback Mountain, or the lack of DC traffic in Phoenix and I think I miss it there. And maybe a tiny little bit of me misses those things, but there are so many things here that have already made me so much happier than I was in Arizona.

Our ward is AWESOME, and I actually get to go Sunday School and Relief Society for the first time since we've been married! 

We've already made AWESOME friends that I now could not live without. OH, and you know how after you're married you have to "date" other couples, and in order to have a good relationship you have to all four get along, and that's nearly impossible? Well folks, we found them, and its pretty awesome. Like couple-sou-mates or something.

[pardon my ranting....but wait there's more, though slightly unrelated]

okay. I need a little mind detox, bear with me...

1. EVERYBODY and their DOG is pregnant. Ladies younger than me are pregnant with their SECOND. Its  so hard to come to terms with the fact that I am "age-appropriate" for mother-hood. I still feel so young! I AM SO YOUNG! [i don't know how i feel about babies yet, they're cool...right?]

2. I'm slowly evolving into a blonde, its kind of fun! Never thought I'd go there..

3. My Tahoe...I just don't know.

4. Living a half mile from the gym, and the gym not having free parking, is forcing me to do cardio. I'm sure that's probably a good thing.

5. Parking anywhere is kind of ridiculous.

6. I want a puppy..or something else...see number 1

7. The other day I saw a freshly amputated foot, it was pretty grotesque, and AWESOME...skin grafts and keloids are crazy guys, like super nasty crazy

8. I also visited my first psych ward [don't worry, it was for work, promise]...think one flew over the cuckoo's nest and sucker punch combined. Interesting experience.

9. Taylor and I, and our couple-bffs created a fantasy football team...we might have watched too much of  The League...I don't know anything about football..

Lake Powell 2012

I never did end up blogging photos of Lake Powell, or Mexico...

My cop out? We were too busy making memories to take any photos ourselves, and then I got lazy with the whole blogging thing.

Annie sent us an awesome LP video and a bunch of photos that she took. This was my very favorite moment of the whole trip! Thanks for the ride babe!

Can't wait to be back there

or back on any lake for that matter!

p.s. DC people, anyone have a wakeboard boat? I'll chip in for gas!! :)

update

So, Taylor is off for his first day of orientation! Go Him! and I thought this would be a good time for a little update, since I haven't been called in for work as of yet this morning.

We've been in DC now for almost a month and have settled nicely :) we LOVE our place!

It's so much nicer to not have to mow an acre's worth of lawn,

and clean a house big enough for 5-6 when there are only 2 of us (although I do love that house),

or deal with mean neighbors.

We are currently renting a cute little basement apartment about 1/2 mile from Georgetown, we like our housemates who live upstairs (although we're in the process of getting some newbies),

and there are beautiful trails to run that have TREES! yes trees! no more canal runs with just dirt and rocks and 120 degrees worth of sun aimed at you the entire time! it's so exciting how green our neighborhood here is! I love it!

I started my job about a week ago and so far so good! It's a little slow because summer is just ending, but I should be getting a little more busy in the next couple weeks! I have a job as a medical ASL interpreter here with an agency that is contracted with several hospitals, although all of my assignments so far have been at the same one. 

So far I haven't run into one client or assignment that I haven't enjoyed :) 

It's a pretty interesting job, sometimes I just sit and wait a lot (ER), sometimes I get to see large amounts of blood (also ER), sometimes I get regular Dr.'s appointments, and sometimes the people don't show up and I still get paid! hooray!

We haven't yet been to our ward here, mainly because we haven't quite gotten our sleeping habits in line with the time difference and so its hard to make ourselves get up for 9am church. We have however been to the 1pm meeting, and I wouldn't mind if that were our ward! So friendly! So nice! Such great talks, and so much more diversity than any ward I've ever been in. When the person giving the talk says "Good Afternoon" everyone in the congregation replies aloud "Good Afternoon" I absolutely LOVE that! That NEVER happens in any ward I have ever attended before. I wish it would happen more often elsewhere, to be honest.

We are slowly learning how to get around. Slowly learning how the bus system and metro works around here. Quickly learning that parking anywhere is ridiculously expensive. And excited to have 2 bike locks instead of one so that we can utilize that mode of transportation a little more effectively. 

Last week we decided to ride our bike to the Lincoln Memorial. 20 min. folks, thats it! We are so close to EVERYTHING!