Life as I know it

I have not been in much of a blogging mood lately. In fact, today I even had to fight off a pity party. You see, 'graduation' is coming up (no commencement ceremony). I had my last class of my master's degree on Thursday. I'm not as sad as some of my classmates, but I have gotten very close with several of them. I'll just be so happy to see them at dinner instead of in a class! I've been telling Ben for a year at least that I really want a graduation party. I feel like for the past 3 years I've been studying and working and missing a lot of my good friends & family, so I was very much looking forward to a gathering to mark the end of a very long degree! Well, its less than 2 weeks from graduation and no party is planned and Ben is not exactly heading up the party planning committee. Ben says he tried to plan one for earlier in the summer, but he said something was planned the same day without his knowing so it didn't work out. Now, he's lost his creativity & momentum and has elected me chair of my own party planning... Boo!

Anyways, pity party aside. I am still incredibly thankful I have a job and praying EVERY day that my state certification comes in sooner than later. It is SUCH an ordeal. I have to wait for the university to post my degree (could take a week after graduation). THEN, I wait for the dean to write me a letter saying, I've graduated. Next, I mail my letter and certification application to the state and pray for a quick turn around of which they told me will be 6-8 weeks! I am receiving substitute pay until then which is a quarter above minimum wage I think. Substitute pay is better than no pay though for sure! But master's pay is even better than that! What a great month that will be when I finally get PAID!

I have been handling the penny pinching well though, I bring you my project for the day:


This lovely & far from perfect message board will cover a very bare wall behind my desk. This was surprisingly MUCH harder than it looks! I bought the fabric, ribbon & nail heads today for $8 dollars thinking I'd just throw it all together.... well 3 hours later I finally figured out how to make the ribbon as parallel as I was ever going to get them! The ribbon is a little gold so it stands out bright in this picture, but under normal lighting it blends well. I also bought some clearance fabric for curtains and am still waiting on my thrift store purchase to be recovered. THEN I'll show you some before/after pictures.

Tomorrow is my 3rd day of work!!