kids these days

Left side, by the blue flag, maybe the only Asian kid?

SIX

I remember when I used to blog. Those were the days. I had things to say and I could manage to articulate them in a semi-coherent way.

Now, my brain is just noodles and dust motes and to-do lists. Nothing of real substance and nothing I feel is worth sharing.

But I'm plunking myself down and forcing myself to string together some words and sentences! Because, commitment!

Alright let's get right to the list because all good bloggers make lists instead of using sentences and paragraphs!

1. My mom is making me take dance lessons. I thought John would be like, heck to the naw, but he was all about it. What a suck up. So, tonight, from 7pm-9pm, if you hear wailing, it's me learning how to waltz or something.

2. We are basically done with wedding planning. PTL. Basically done meaning we have little things to decide still that I just don't care about at all. WOOHOO

3. Did you know there is So Delicious Coconut Milk Ice Cream? There is and it is DANG GOOD. Try it.

Well that seems like a good start.

Y'all are great. Have great days!

It's Wednesday which means that tomorrow is Thursday which will be followed by Friday which leads into Saturday and I will be flying HOME.

I love missionaries, I love this job, I love being here with so many amazing friends, I love having super structured prayer time.

And I am so ready to come home.

We had a fancy dinner this past weekend and I realized that I didn't have a normal sized bag to carry my stuff. My bag here is a beach bag and could hold two small children.

So I just grabbed what I needed and did this:

Is it too soon to write about charting?

Probably not.

Okay so I had a basic understanding of what charting and NFP looked like/consisted of/entailed.

But, then I got engaged and we starting chatting with a practitioner (via Google Hangout, so cool) and I realized how much more intense it actually is. I can totally see why people get discouraged and quit doing it, or get overwhelmed (Tacky? Sticky? Pasty?).

But it's crazy because I can already see the fruit that is coming from it, and we are still just engaged and not having sex/living the married person dream.

I realized how much I grasped onto the idea of my fertility and how I was going to decide when we got pregnant. Jokes. The Lord has the best plans and they are rarely the ones I come up with.

We also both realized how much more we could grow in vulnerability. Once we started talking about mucus there wasn't any other topic that was quite as intrusive and/or uncomfortable.

Basically, it's been a real gift and I've appreciated it immensely already.

I'll do my best not to let this become total NFP blog.

ALSO I'm almost done with training and then I'll be back in NEBRASKAAAA

Here's an app that literally no one needs but is cracking me the heck up.

Friends,
People on the internet,
Individuals who somehow found this page,
I'm having a dilemma.

This happens a lot, actually, but this is the first time I'm concretely expressing it.

I'm having the "should-I-even-blog" dilemma. I know you all probably know it well, if you blog, that is.

I just feel guilty when I don't post, and then I feel guilty when I post mediocre things, and even when I post things that aren't half bad I think, crap, now I've set the bar too high.

But the thing is, I love writing. Maybe I don't always love blogging, but it is a mighty convenient way to work out my writing kinks and get minimal feedback.

Maybe I'm just in a rut because I'm in Florida (no offense, FL, I know that Haley and Daniel are FLO ridas and they seem pretty neat).

Also another thing is that instead of writing anything I'm starting tiny posts for this blog and for twocatholicgirls and then I end up posting nothing. Fail.

Since I'm not ready to give up either blog (or combine both reading communities quite yet, yikes!) I'm going to try really hard to work at both blogs.

Two times as much Caitlin on the internet.

Anyway, does anyone have advice on blogging? Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

I guess this is why people have instagram, but on instagram I can't write long drawn out captions. Well, I could but I feel like it's bad form.

Here we goooooo

I love these because I'm a perpetual cranky old man and this helps break up the monotony of being cynical.

That sounds pretty dramatic. I mostly just complain about weather and kids these days and old person things.

On to some happy things!

1. NEW TEAM

So placement night at New Staff Training is pretty out of control. The first years all get little envelopes and then they read where they are headed and then they cry (maybe?) and then they come and find us. We are all gathered in the cafeteria with signs and t-shirts to welcome them. It's overwhelming.

But we got a new team mate! He's great and I'm super pumped to get to know him better. He's a first year from Columbia (the country) who attended Columbia (the school).


Here's a dark photo of us all. We were celebrating with our Director, Steve (rocking a Cal colored polo) and drinking champagne by the fountain.



2. BEACH DAY


 We didn't have sumo suits, but it was still fun.

I get beach anxiety. I have fair fair fair white fair skin that burns when I think about the sun for too long. So normally I like to go to the beach for like 20mins and then call it a day. But, when you go with a group (and you don't drive) you end up being there for all of the day.

Which actually was super fun and I only got a little burned.

Plus side of training being in FL: the weekends are rad.



Romantic sunset shot of us wearing gym shorts and modest one pieces.

Props to Stephanie for hosting this beautiful link up and for reminding me not to be a cranky old man.

Head over to Blessed to Be for more Little Happies!