So I took a little hiatus from this because I was just feeling crazy stressed out and panicked about school and just life in general, but I'm back now!  It's so hard to get started on something like this again once you've quit for a while, but I think this little endeavor is totally worth it.  I'm not sure how it will go, but I'd love to try updating every 2-3 days or so again.  I have so many pent-up ideas from the past couple months that I'm just dying to share with you guys!  But first, I'd love to just give you all a little life update, because I want my readers up to speed on everything when things start getting super interesting over the next few months.

Life has been pretty hectic lately, and a lot has changed.  Still, I had a super fabulous holiday season and have never been happier to enter the new year.  I did a little shopping with some of my besties, found some choice moments to share some romance with my Mike, and reveled in a very white Christmas.  For the first time ever, I actually got something I was wishing for from my family without ever having to tell anyone I wanted it, which left me giddy with the spirit of Christmas. 

As I may have mentioned before to some of you, I've had plans to move in with my parents during the months preceding my trip to Germany for quite some time.  I just couldn't seem to bear to part with my independent lifestyle and go back to being confined by what amounts to roommates any earlier than this.  Of course, I had a talk with them about trying to place the authoritarian rule that they once held over me upon me again, and that whole mess was cleared up.  However, living with people is hard after you've spent so long just living with yourself and freedom; you wake each other up if one of you gets up early and sometimes, one doesn't like the way the other does certain things.  Even the temperature on the thermostat can create tension. 

Super-fab snowman all decked out in Nine West and berries <3

Well, I put it off for as long as I could, but after dealing with the first moving company, who just so happened to be totally unprofessional losers (HUNTSVILLE MAYFLOWER), talking to the perfectly decent Mayflower movers of Alabaster, and indulging fantasies that moving out just means I'll be even closer to Germany, I spontaneously decided to clear out by the end of January.  I was all busy packing, and when my parents invited me to come stay the night last Sunday just in case I lost power during the big snow storm, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to test the waters and see how living with them would be.  Little did I know that that one night would become more permanent!

The snow is still on the ground and the ice it has turned into treacherous to walk on, and my one night stay turned into totally moving myself out of the apartment earlier than I could have imagined.  I've brought everything I'm not intending to pack and store over to my parents' and attempted to cram it into my tiny bedroom and the converted porch that my mom likes to call her "office."  It's been interesting so far, fun and frustrating alternately based on various circumstances, but all in all, I'm just happy to be one milestone closer to my ultimate goal of just having a normal life with Mike. 

Really quick before I sign off, I'd just like to thank my wonderful friends for making last year and the beginning of this one so fabulous and fun.  I'm so happy with life right now, and as I was telling Sarah last night, life is amazing and I'm grateful to be able to live it, especially when I have someone worth sharing it with <3  I really hope all of you keep up with my posts this next week, because I've got so much to say and I have to do it before I burst!