Mid-life update.

I kind of went on a blog hiatus for a month and a half.  Whoops.  I love the writing that comes with blogging, which is probably why my blog has lots of wordy posts.  And since I'm kind of playing catch-up right now, I think today's post needs to have bullets...too much going on in my head right now to write about each thing, so we'll go for an overview!

• At the end of August, my brother flew to Oklahoma.  He still had a lot of his childhood things at my parent's casa and since he has his own house in New Hampshire, it was time that his immense video game collection and Star Wars items find their way to that house :)  So, he and I rented a minivan {packed to the brim} and made the 1800 mile trek to New Hampshire.  

• While in New Hampshire, I got to see Jill before she moved from Boston to Austin.  We spent a day on the lake kayaking using my bro and SIL's kayaks!  Thanks J & T :)

• Also in New Hampshire, Tina and I got to play with decorating their house :)  I think of it as playing...Tina probably thinks of it as work.  The pic on the left {below} is the winter-y look. The pic on the right {below} is for spring!  Much more light and airy.  

• The new house is coming along...slowly but surely!  When I got back from New Hampshire, I found a GIANT surprise: Mom removed all of the popcorn ceilings throughout the entire house. I was completely and utterly shocked/ecstatic.  What this has ended up meaning is, other projects got added to the to-do list because of the popcorn being gone.  In layman's terms, we're pretty much gutting the whole house.  One of the bigger projects includes raising the floor in the sunken living room {which was one of the things dating the house the most}.  

before

during {bye bye columns}

after!

• Don't worry, there's still more work to show you, but that's just to give a few teaser pics of the house :)  more Doma Diaries posts to come in the near future!  
• My old iphone 3gs was on it's last leg a few weeks ago.  It served me well for 3+ years, but when the new iphone came out, I preordered mine immediately.  I never thought that I'd be able to keep an iphone working, but they make them pretty dang tough--I dropped mine in the OCEAN and it barely blinked an eye.  

one last picture from my old iphone :)

• After I got home from New Hampshire, my brother asked me if I wanted to start an app called Couch to 5k.  I had been meaning to start working out again, but never found the motivation. So, 6 weeks ago, we started the program together.  And today, I ran for 20 minutes {although the last 5 minutes of the run was barely a jog} for the first time since January and before getting sick in Ukraine. It wasn't pretty, but I did it!  A few weekends ago, it got realllllly chilly in Norman {in the 40's} but I still had to do my run.  So, I broke out the only leggings I had around. 

• This past weekend was one of the best weekends of the year: OU/Saxet.  Pretty sure that it was my favorite OU/Texas game to date.  Words can't explain how excited the crowd was after every touchdown we scored on them.  

Pops, Mom, and Lydia at the game. 

• I recently chopped off my bangs.  Again.  It usually happens at a very random time {this time it was 11:30 pm last Wednesday night}--like this time, when I had been painting all day.  

That's all for now.  I'll leave you with two different Oklahoma sunsets that made my heart happy.  

Boomer. Sooner.

the doma diaries: kitchen demolition!

I'm gearing up for the mission trip as I type this {doing laundry} but wanted to get in one more post before I leave tomorrow morning!  I mailed off more Peace Corps paperwork today...remember the application process and how it never ended?  Well, the COS process {close of service} is just as intense.  I'm super excited to leave tomorrow and get on the road.  But first...

It's time for some kitchen demo pics!  

Remember what the kitchen looked like before?  

the awkward brick column in the middle...housing the double oven.

and a cute little desk area {complete with locking medicine cabinet} 

and the really old {space-age} cooktop...

Time to say goodbye to the column!

The Jetson's called.  They'd like their oven back.

Doesn't it feel more open instantly?

If you look at the ceiling, you'll see two different types of texture where the brick column went up.  Very interesting...

This is Rick, the jolly green giant :)  He's the one doing all of this handy dandy construction/demolition work.

So. Old.

Remember the original cooktop?  I'll refresh your memory...

Before...

After! {a new slide-in range will go there, along with a hip new vent hood}

Before...

After! {notice the bottom part of the upper cabinetry}

Before...

After!

Ta da!

Time to go start packing now.  Good thing our luggage didn't have to be at the church today! :)  Not sure what internet will look like on the trip, but if there's time, I'll try to throw in a blog post or two.  Happy Wednesday!

the doma diaries: pops's study!

Happy Friday!!  A week from today, I will be in Chicago with the high school kiddos on our way to Toronto for the summer mission trip.  In preparation for the trip, I needed to get certified to drive one of the church mini-buses.  I've waited 10 years to be able to drive one of those babies (you have to be 25 years old) and the day finally came!  Scott took me out for a test drive...and it honestly wasn't that bad! 

stolen instagram photo

Let's get down to business though.  Next stop on the tour of the new house is my dad's study.  My dad has dreamed of having built-in bookshelves in his study for a long, long time.  That day is finally coming {soon} and we're all quite excited to see how they'll turn out.  

one of the front bedrooms--soon to be a Boomer Sooner Study!

other direction

the closet {which will also get special built-ins! more about that later...}

first order of business: take out the old carpet {the built-ins will be built directly on the floor and new carpet will go in around the built-ins}

sayonara! 

bez carpet {a little Russian for you today. I think you can figure out what it means...}

without carpet!

all sorts of secret messages were left for us...more about that later too :)

no more hanging rods!

That's all the sneak peak you're going to get today.  I also need to say hi to all of my friends at Camp HEAL {an HIV/AIDS educational youth summer camp in Ukraine}.  Hope y'all are soaking up the rays on the beach and teaching the kids lots of stuff.  Wish I were there with y'all :)

Two month mark of being home in 'homa...'

Two months ago, I left Kiev on a very early flight, eventually heading for Oklahoma City {Kiev-->Paris-->Atlanta-->OKC}.  I was being medically evacuated by Peace Corps so that I could recover from having mono.  Because mono can take months {and months} to recover from, I wasn't able to make it back to Ukraine in the 45 day allotment they give you for medical evacuation.  On June 11, 2012, I was medically separated from the Peace Corps and am now a RPCV {Returned Peace Corps Volunteer}. I'm still getting better from having had mono.  Most days now I have a decent amount of energy...but I'm still easily sleeping 10-11 hours at night.  

So, what have I been doing since being home in Oklahoma?  Enjoying a few of these...

Nothing beats an Oklahoma sunset.  

I received my two 50-pound bags from Ukraine.  Surprisingly all in one piece and pretty much unharmed!  Kudos to Dan and Vicki for packing those things...

I am in the process of washing everything that was in those suitcases...mostly winter things that had only gotten one season's use during my first real winter {ever} in Ukraine.  There are days that I'm here and forget about the use of a dryer...and the fact that if something is dirty, I don't have to wait 3 days for it to dry if I wash it. 

Also during my two month span of being home, my parents have purchased a new home here in Norman.  So random and such odd timing...but the perfect one came on the market and we all love it.  That's probably what a lot of blog posts in the future will be aimed towards :)  More about that later.  But, demo work has finally begun this week.  The kitchen is 40 years old...and in need of some major TLC.  

More about kitchen projects soon...and don't worry, I didn't lift a hand in there.  

I got my teeth cleaned for the first time in over a year today.  No cavities!  So, I celebrated with Chick-Fil-A breakfast because I'm usually not up in time to enjoy their breakfast menu...love me some chicken-minis :)  I'm almost done with all of the Peace Corps paperwork for closing out my service...I will be so happy to be done with the mounds of paperwork they send you.  And medical and dental stuff you have to do as well.  

I miss blogging, and hope to start doing it more.  It's really therapeutic for me...but I haven't been in the mood the past few weeks. And, because I never replied to all of the emails and text messages and sweet words people said to me after my last blog post, thank you all :) I plan on responding to them, but it still may take me some time.  

And, because I probably won't end up blogging tomorrow, I need to wish Mr. Matthew Schlegel a very happy birthday :)  We've traveled many a mile together...from Mexico to Canada and beyond.  Hope you have a wonderful day Schlegel!

The Time Has Come, the Walrus Said...

This is the post that I've been dreading for quite some time.  I don't like dealing with confrontations and this is a major one.  But, as the lyrics from Alice in Wonderland state, "The time has come...".  

So, to all of my friends and family scattered from Ukraine to Oklahoma, I have to face the facts and let you know that my Peace Corps service is ending.  Officially, it ended on Monday {June 11, 2012}.  It's been a long time a'coming and when people recently asked me whether I'd be going back or not, I usually tried to skirt around the issue.  

My time in Ukraine was wonderful and something that I will cherish forever.  There were three things I really wanted to accomplish when I joined the Peace Corps: learn a new language, be immersed in a totally different culture, and travel.  I'm fairly happy with the fact that I can basically check those three items off my bucket list {although the travel part will never be done!}.  But it's still bittersweet.  There are days that I've been here in the states and wish I were still in Ukraine.  Those are the bad days, when I miss the more simplistic life of a Peace Corps Volunteer.  But I've had a lot of good days since I've been here in Oklahoma.  

I never could have dreamt that this chain of events would happen.  Getting sick in February...which was really mono but we didn't know it...and then getting pneumonia while recovering from mono.  It wasn't fun, but couldn't be avoided {no matter how much antibacterial hand sanitizer I used!}.  

I am still recovering from mono.  The recovery period can be months {and some people say it takes a full year...fingers crossed that that is not my case}.  The past two weeks-ish have been better.  I was finally given the go-ahead to start working out and jogged for the first time since January.  Granted, I lasted all of seven minutes at a v e r y slow pace, but ya gotta start somewhere :) it also made my body hurt in ways that I had forgotten because I've been so inactive for the past 5 months.  Five months.  Of being sick.  Let that settle in for a minute...

Since COS'ing {Close of Service, in Peace Corps lingo}, I have to make one more minor adjustment.  Upon arriving in Oklahoma, it's been hard for me to say where "home" was.  I really have just avoided saying "home" in general since being in OK {typical Lydia style}.  When I lived in Ukraine, I called Kirovograd my home. I was from Oklahoma, but K-grad was my home.  At one point during my service, I had a few Ukrainians comment to me that I called Ukraine home.  I totally didn't see the weirdness of this.  And I still don't.  I had every intention of spending my two year service in Ukraine...so why wouldn't it be my home?  But now, I have to change that and start calling Oklahoma home. 

I'm not sure what the next few months will hold.  Still resting.  Helping my parents move to a different house in Norman.  Doing design stuff for the new house. 

I'm kind of in a funk right now and don't know what else to post in this entry...so I'm going to go ahead and hit publish.  Perhaps more thoughts will come tomorrow :)  but for today, that's all I've got.

Way-Back-Wednesday #25: Happy Wedding Week, Kyle & Bayley!

It's my favorite post of the week day--Wednesday!  I wish every blog post were about old and awkward pictures.  Today's is no exception :) Get ready for some really old and super embarrassing pictures.  But first, you've gotta have a little background.

Meet Kyle and Bayley

*picture stolen from Facebook*

I met Kyle {the groom} when I moved to Norman 11 years ago.  He's a year older than me, and although we went to different high schools, we became good friends at church.  Summer of 2002, we traveled to Los Angeles on a mission trip.  Kyle and one of his best friends, Brandon, sat by me while I used a CALLING CARD {way before the days of cell phones} to talk to my parents during the trip.  Pretty sure our friendship was solidified after that.  

During my sophomore year of high school, I took Kyle to our winter semi-formal at Norman North.  This is where the super embarrassing pictures come into play.  And it involves a funny side story with my PC friends in Ukraine.

Side story: At some point over the last few months, my friends and I {in Ukraine} were discussing the evolution of clothes.  Kym and I got to talking about our old prom dresses...and eventually I described the dress {if you can call it that?} that you'll see below.  This was during the time that showing your belly was uber popular.  So, for the record, I thought this outfit was incredibly cool at the time.  But, now, I realize how really embarrassing it is.  

the top of the outfit...not too bad!

There it is, in all of its glory!  Sheer overlay, pants, and black lace.  I can't imagine what Kyle's parents thought of my outfit.  

best of buds--Brandon and Kyle

obligatory picture with the parents

Wally (who happens to be my dentist!), Lydia, Kyle, and Cathy (who happened to be my boss for 6 years!)

So now that those pics are out of the way, we'll start with some other goodies of Kyle.  Don't worry Bayley, yours are coming too :)

Kyle and Darren--ballers.

some youth event...Kyle is in the back left doing one of his infamous dance moves.  

Kyle's mad dance skills.  Hope I get to see this in person again at the wedding...

totally in his element!

going to see Tim McGraw

Darren, Amy, Nora, Kyle, Jacey, Lydia

Wonderful memories after Timmy...a flat tire in the parking garage!

Harry Potter?  Or Steve Urkel?  

Kyle, Darren, David, Bennett

hanging out in Seattle--2005

After high school, Kyle and I both headed to OU.  We would see each other occasionally, sometimes through studio classes in the College of Architecture.  After a few years though...he began to come around more.  That is, once he met Bayley :)

Bayley, now an architecture grad from OU, and I met during the good ol' days of studio.  We happened to be in a class together that involved combining my interior design class with her architecture class.  After that, our paths crossed every day.

Lydia and Bayley {with Robert in the background, who actually introduced Kyle and Bayley}

Winter White Out--Bayley, Lydia, Drew

Lydia, Bayley, Drew, Beth

Bayley and one of her best friends, Drew

I know I'm being long-winded, but their engagement story is one of the sweetest things ever.  Bear with me. 

I can't remember all the details, but the pictures speak wonders. According to a Japanese legend, whoever folds 1000 paper cranes is granted a wish.  So, Kyle got to folding...

and folding...

and folding...

His wish?  For Bayley to marry him. 

Pretty magical, isn't it? 

So happy for the both of y'all :)  Happy Wedding Week!  And just because this is one of the best engagement shots ever...

Kyle & Bayley--May 19, 2012