this one time, i got engaged.

can't wait to spend together forever :)

yours, mine and ours.

sometimes i have such a hard time with the fact that this was kevin's city first, and sometimes it still feels like i'm just tagging along, or just on vacation, and that i don't really live here. but i've been trying lately to focus on all the things about tucson that we've made ours:

-a certain spot on mt. lemmon where we alway

s sit and reflect on how beautiful life really is

-the new self-serve frozen yogurt place on speedway that we often go to after dinner

-saturday morning brunch after my long run and kevin's bike ride

-adding movies to our netflix queue

-the random weekday where neither of us have meetings and we can sleep in :)

-stopping by starbuck's or canyon cafe on the

way to work

-the saturday early-bird movie for $5

-having a beer at kevin's apartment after a lon

g day at work and class

-mass on sunday afternoons (currently we're church shopping), and a dinner out afterwards where we can relax before our busy lives begin again the next morning

new favorite picture: kevin, a weiner, and i at the tucson beer festival a few weeks ago.

steady my heart.

this song is kind of changing my life right now.

Mat Kearney - Never Be Ready

We got our feet on the wire
Talking 'bout flying
Maybe we're diving in over our heads
Scared of what I'm feeling
Staring at the ceiling
Here tonight

Come on and lay down these arms
All our best defenses
We're taking our chances here on the run
The fear is an anchor
Time is a stranger
Love isn't borrowed
We aren't promised tomorrow

We'll never be ready if we keep waiting
For the perfect time to come
Hold me steady, we'll never be ready
When we don't know, though we can't see
Just walk on down this road with me
Hold me steady, we'll never be ready

You're OK here with me
Here in the silence
With all of the violence crashing around
Saying we can't go
Saying we don't know
This road that is narrow is the one we should follow

We'll never be ready if we keep waiting
For the perfect time to come
Hold me steady, we'll never be ready
When we don't know, though we can't see
Just walk on down this road with me
Hold me steady, we'll never be ready

Steady my hands this one could turn around
Steady my heart, it's beating faster
Steady my hands this one could turn around
Steady my heart, it's beating faster
Beating faster now

We'll never be ready if we keep waiting
For the perfect time to come
Hold me steady, we'll never be ready
When we don't know, though we can't see
Just walk on down this road with me
Hold me steady, never be ready

Hold me steady, we'll never be ready
Hold me steady, we'll never be ready
Hold me steady, we'll never be ready 

Reinventing.

It's funny how soon things can start to feel normal, or at least the alternatives to feel weird. I like routine - sometimes I wish I didn't, at least not so much - but I can't really get away from it. It's been good to finally have one after these last few months of non-spontaneous unpredictability (if that even makes any sense). It's so good to wake up and go to work, knowing that I'll see Kevin in a few hours for lunch at the Union, and that at right about 5 he'll call me once he's off work and come over. The evenings - well - I just let them take care of themselves. There's no rush to do anything because we have all year to do it, which is such a different feeling than this whole last year where I felt like it had to be so go-go-go in order to accomplish everything we wanted to within the designated monthly weekend.

It's kind of neat, to be falling in love all over again with the same person, but in a different way. In the "I-can't-wait-to-wake-up-next-to-you-again-tomorrow" kind of way, rather than the "I'm-going-to-miss-you-so-much-when-we're-not-together" kind of way.

Being long-distance for so long has taught me how to not take anything for granted. Having lunch together on a random weekday doesn't seem like a big deal until I realize we never got to do it before. I just feel so blessed to be able to do all the little things together. It's beautiful, really.

1.25 years later and I still feel like the luckiest girl in the world.