As Random As I Can Possibly Be....

HELLO. Its been a while. I haven't felt like writing anything lately, and started to go into a mini "blogger crisis" of what constitutes a good blog. dumb.  I could ramble on with excuses, but let's be honest no one really cares. And I've gotten over myself and realized that I should just write what I want to write. ANYWHOOOOOOO for my "comeback" I thought I'd be as random as possible......Without further ado....

In light of it's spectacular start, March has been pretty good! The weather has been all over the place, but we have had some very nice days. Nothing in the 70's yet, but comfortable enough for flip flops!

and there have been days in the high 30's & low 40's where I still dress like this....

At the beginning of the month, Adam's dad Ted & my friend Marissa came to visit. We had a great week of lots of fun and sightseeing, and I'm really thankful they made the trek half way around the world to see us.

Marissa & I in an ancient town right outside where we live. It was a PERFECT weather day. 

Adam & His dad in the downtown of our city. 

Adam & I at a large major tourist attraction 

{we look like we're in a North Face ad...}

Soon after they left, March madness started. 

We are so happy that our wildcats are in the Final 4 again this year. We are keeping our fingers crossed for another WIN over Louisville on Saturday night, and a national title for the first time in 14 years. Oh please oh please oh pllleeeaasseee!!!!

In a few days I will have gone a month without our dryer. We're not quite sure what her fate is at this point. Sob, sniff, I know I know... I think like .001% of the population here has them so I'm so thankful that we do have one. I have been determined to make the best of it, and I have to say it hasn't been that bad. 

I have spent lots of extra time lately working on laundry though. 

crunchy socks are the downside of air drying....

I am SO thankful for the handy drying rack that my friend Ash let me borrow. 

Our living has turned into quite the laundry mat. 

As to what actually happened to it... the dryer is a good 8 years old, and in East Asian appliance years that's OLD. The fan {made of crappy plastic} that sucks out the air broke- like literally into pieces. Go figure. The dryer company doesn't carry the part anymore... again, only 8 years old. HOWEVER, we spent a decent amount of money fixing the heating element on the dang thing 4 months ago so we aren't ready to give up. There's a little fix it man who works in a garage outside of our apartment, and although he hasn't worked on a dryer before, he's currently trying to come up with a way to ghetto rig it. That's how we roll around here. 

As I was taking pictures of some of my spring decor, I came across this funny/ridiculous gift that one of Adam's friend's gave him last year. At first glance it looks like a really funny bear snow globe with a denim shirt for the base.

BUT when you take a closer look, no no..... it's definitely rated PG-13. She has taken his suspenders off and is looking down his little trousers there.

Oh dear. We still have NO idea why someone gave this to Adam, but it is hilarious and pretty indicative of some of the presents we get from time to time. The same guy gave our friend Ryan a seashell wind chime that night.

I recently came across a set of Growing Pains DVD's here..... only the 1st disc is in English {the rest are dubbed over and HILARIOUS} but I forgot how much I love that show. Still can't decide if I enjoy watching Kirk more in those days or in Fireproof {don't hate! you know it's good!}

In America when I'm at home getting stuff done, for background noise I leave TBS on the TV in the living room all afternoon {after the Price is Right & the morning shows have ended}. I love sitcoms. I always have. Since I don't have that luxury here, I cycle through TV shows on DVD- Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, Frasier... and I've now added Growing Pains to my rotation. It makes cleaning the house that much more enjoyable. Now if I could just get my hands on Full House & Step by Step.....

I missed my little buddy's 1st birthday. It was not as painful as missing his actual birth day, but another one of those things that is hard to miss. It's the nature of living overseas.

He's gotten so big!

Speaking of hating missing it... I am still in mourning over missing the Mumford & Sons show at the Ryman. I'm pretty sure it is the one concert I'd most want to go to in the best music venue there is. 

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Serious as a heart attack..... we were riding in a van in Thailand a few days before the tickets went on sale- I had no idea they were coming to Nashville, nevertheless to the Ryman. I was dozing in & out soaking up Marcus's every lyric, and thought, "I would give anything to see them at the Ryman someday. If they ever come, Anna and I will absolutely go together." Well 3 days later we returned to our hotel to an internet connection and had a text from Anna that said, "I bought Mumford and Sons tickets this morning and ended up with an extra. Anyway you could make it??? Would make it ideal." to Which I replied, "shut up. please don't tell me it is at the Ryman, I will cry right now." She said, "It is at the Ryman, but please don't cry. I will find them and make them pinky swear to come back." 

I cried. Not really but close... ask Hannah. I laid there wallowing in my misery. AND I'm holding Anna to that pinky swear. 

 I've watched several videos on youtube and it looked amazing.... like this one- the 3-ish min mark is when I still get a little misty. I still hope that their banjo player Winston will take me up on my offer to pay him to follow me around with his banjo. 

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And speaking of good music.....I am thoroughly enjoying the world of Spotify these days. I'm discovering all sorts of new FREE music. Pandora meets iTunes meets social networking. 

Okay is that random enough for you? 

I will have all of my instagram March photo challenge pictures in a couple of days as well as my spring decor. Pinky promise. 

Joyfully objectiveless, 

Happy March!

Happy March 1st to you! 

Today was a great day. 

We spent the first half of this week staying with some friends out of town and got home yesterday evening. 

Side note: One of the highlights of staying with our friends was spending time with their little girl RubyJune. They just brought her home from Ethiopia last summer and she sure took a liking to Mr. Adam. She is a DOLL. 

When we got home last night, we had a good filling dinner of fried rice next door, and called it an early night. I woke up very refreshed. 

My morning was great. Full. Abundant. I wish I could go into great detail now... but can't here. I will say that time in the BG's book, a new album on noisetrade by "Jenny & Tyler" that was quite enlivening, some great processing that was refreshing to say the least ... I really wish I could tell you more now. Just know it was ABUNDANT and a gift from the BG. Then go google Ann Voskamp and subscribe to her blog {And read her book.... my new all time favorite}. The words on her blog resonated with my soul this morning. 

In the midst of this joy fest on my couch my phone beeped and my friend Ash had sent me a text that said, "The Sun!" cue Hallelujah chorus! In light of our recent gloom, this was a beautiful gift.

There were sun rays coming through my window. And shadows on the floor. I forgot what those were. 

I then officially decided that March was going to be a good month. 

I originally planned to shower at that point, and then eat some Mac & Cheese here for lunch before heading to a coffee shop to get stuff done... but this weather was beckoning me outside. So I scrapped the shower (decided I'd take it tonight... not happening), and Adam and I wondered out to get lunch and grab some things out in our neighborhood. I told everyone I saw that "Today's weather is SO GREAT! You can see the sky and the sun!!!" in east asian. Crazy foreigner. 

 Hannah even sent me a text that said, "I might be wearing too much clothing!" Which says a lot around here. It wasn't warm by any means, but it wasn't cold and wet either. The sky was blue. BRIGHT blue.  

I made it {although I was a bit chilly} in just a fleece, and even pulled out the sun glasses. 

The rest of the day was great... our fave coffee shop "The Snail House" opened another shop right down the street with a 2nd floor with NO-SMOKING {hallelujah choir still singing}... I can't tell you how wonderful that is. Coffee shops here are the WORST for feeling like you are sitting in a giant stale ash tray and certainly smelling like one for the rest of the day.

 So I spent the afternoon there with fun girls, had a tasty dinner from my current favorite little hole in the wall with 2 of my fave EAian pals and ended the night with a quick random call from my friend Jules in America on her way to work. 

In honor of deciding that March is great, I decided to jump on the "Photo-a-day" band-wagon on instagram this month. 

Day 1's theme of "Up" was perfect for a day like today: 

Even if the weather turns south tomorrow. March 1st was a very good day. 

I hope the first day of 三月 is just as great for you! 

Just Joyful,