Twelve Weeks

As of yesterday, I am officially twelve weeks into achieving my culinary degree through Le Cordon Bleu. It's funny how serious you get about your education when you have an understanding of the debt you're getting into. I have my Bachelor's degree in music & I graduated from college with a 3.49, but I was never serious about my degree. In college, my professors would let us know up front how many absent days we are allotted for the semester & I would save them up carefully & use every single one. Now my chefs also let us know how many days we can be absent, but after missing one day this cycle due to illness I realized that I would rather come in sick than get that far behind again.

Since I mentioned finances, I will admit that they have been floating around in my head a lot lately. Recently, I finished paying off an accumulative debt of over $8,000 I had racked up in credit cards & fees. It feels amazing to finally be rid of that monster looming over my head at every turn. My amazing, loving boyfriend & I also opened up a joint checking/savings account to plan for our future together. I never realized just how scary the words "joint checking" are until we were sitting in front of the banker & filling out the paperwork. In reality though, I am so happy that we are budgeting & planning together & creating healthy habits that will one day transfer over into our marriage.

One thing that I don't have a lot of is time. My classes are butt-crack-of-dawn early & then I work afternoons & evenings. Sleep is something I hope to have over Christmas break, or maybe next summer sometime. Thankfully my job is amazing & I can look forward to it instead of dread going. Six more weeks & then it's Christmas vacation! I will be hibernating during this period of time & picking up as many shifts at work as I can...& possibly watching a Christmas movie here or there. I have never been in a relationship during the Holidays & I am so happy to be able to create new memories & traditions with the love of my life. He's a bit of a "bah humbug", so I am hoping to coerce him with a bit of Christmas cheer. 

This Christmas will be very exciting as we will have a new addition to the family- my sister & her husband are expecting their third child (& first son) any day now. My oldest niece is staying for a weekend sleepover & her little sister was very disappointed she could not join us. I made her a promise that we will have a play date just her & me soon. Being an auntie is the best!

If you are a lover of music, I have three albums to recommend to you:
"The Whole Love" by Wilco
Bon Iver's new self-titled album
"Great Great God" by Gateway Worship

I have fallen in love with Wilco. My work friends joke that we have a copy of their new album for every room in the house (four copies in total...mostly by accident). Bon Iver's album did not leave my cd player for weeks. And "Great Great God" was a song I fell in love with on my trip to Dallas back in February & I have been anxiously awaiting it's studio release, as my only copy of the song prior to was taken from a Gateway Church small group devotional. All of the songs have been on repeat in my head for the last week. Amazing.