For all your really sweet comments. They meant a lot, and I really do want to go back and respond to each of them.

In the meantime…

We went to Indianapolis/Chicago this weekend to visit friends and see Matt and Alisse tie the knot! It was a great weekend and I will go into more detail about it when I get my pictures off the camera. I wish them both well as they start their life together, and hope they have many, many years of happiness ahead of them!

I have four more days of work. I am trying to finish up some projects I’ve been working on so I’ve been quite busy. :-) I also am mentally making a to do list of what to do starting next week. Here are some of the things on my mind:

– Volunteer at an animal shelter. I have one in mind; it’s a cats-only no-kill shelter. I would love to be able to give my time for that during the day.
– Learn to cook. I want to force myself to try new recipes, and cook every night for dinner. I also want to be better about shopping for food on a regular basis. I know it’s the wrong time of year to start this, but I hope to research local farmers markets to get food.
– Research local businesses. I too easily shop at chains and franchises. I want to look up and find local businesses as a way of meeting my needs where they can.
– Construct a workable family budget and keep ourselves accountable to sticking to it. With only one income, this will be even more important than it has been.
– Research car insurance. According to Kacie, I’m paying too much for car insurance. I’ve been really happy with my service, but I want to see if I can find something cheaper. We have moved to a more expensive county and our rates went up.
– Unpack/declutter. We have too much stuff in our apartment! I need to sell/give away stuff, and also unpack all the boxes that are here. This is a daunting task but it needs to be done.
– Work on this blog. I want a new design and template, and I also want to do some organizational work, namely in the categories and tags department. I have several posts I want to write – some are actually sitting in my drafts folder waiting to be published!
– Work on my pet blog. This blog needs some attention. It needs more regular and informative posts, and perhaps a more clear direction. I had a few ideas for weekly things (like a weekly list of links) that I’d like to start doing again. I have a lot of plans for this blog!
– Write thank-you notes to everyone who helped us move. :-)
– Buy/make wedding presents for all the weddings we went to this summer. Yep, we have been horrible and managed to either forget or not have room in our luggage for any of the presents. I even know what I’m making! I just haven’t had time to do it. I need to before a year passes. ;-)
– Start pursing my hobbies again. I miss doing them! I’d like to find a library and start setting aside more time to read. Also, I want to stamp more – especially cards (hopefully wedding cards so I can get those sent off with the presents!). I want to pick up cross-stitching again (I have a few half-finished projects!). Whenever I’m able to get the sewing machine my grandmother is graciously giving me, I’ll be able to start sewing! Until then I’ll focus on other things.
– Update my homekeeping binder, which I made a year and a half ago, to keep me organized. I also wanted to make the files available for download to my blog readers.
– Upload pictures from my camera and blog them. On my list of events-to-blog: our camping trip with Sopeak & Zay last JUNE!, Bethany’s wedding, our discipleship group retreat, moving, this past weekend in Indy/Chicago, and new apartment (pictures to be taken whenever it gets cleaned ;-)).

There are lots of other things, but I think this is what’s on my mind for now. I don’t know where to start! :-) I have a few upcoming events that I’m looking forward to:
– I’m going to see Wicked at the Fox Theater with a friend on October 14th. I’m excited about that! :-)
– We’re going to do one last camping trip down in Savannah. We’ve been wanting to go there for two years now, but it’s a bit of a drive (5+ hrs) to do in a weekend. Paul has almost two weeks of vacation he needs to use by the end of the year, so we’re going to take a few weekdays off and go visit. I hope it’s not too cold!

That’s it for now. :-) I’m excited to start the next stage in my life next week! But of course I can’t check out yet – I still have four more days of work left!