That one time I hugged a Russian man

I spent a semester teaching English in Russia about a year and a half ago. Besides the fact that it is one of the coolest, most amazing experiences I've ever had, it was also a steady stream of fantastically awkward situations. Seriously, it was almost daily. I could probably start an entire blog just devoted to the many embarrassing moments I enjoyed whilst in Mother Russia. 

Nevertheless... there is one that takes the cake. 

Let me preface this by telling you a little bit about the bus situation in Voronezh. We had to take the bus if we wanted to go anywhere that was too far too walk, and that was pretty often. The buses are kind of small, have a distinct stench smell, and the windows are so dirty you usually can't see through them. Also, they tend to be extraordinarily crowded, meaning you are really lucky to get a seat. Usually you get the privilege of standing with your fellow passengers pressing you on every side. If you are really lucky, you might get squished between some stinky, fat Russian guys.

I got "lucky" a lot.

A typical Russian bus, except this one is too clean. Imagine it is covered in 20 years of grime.

Yes, he is talking on the phone which he answered right after he threw his cigarette out the window. I love Russia. 

One evening after school, three of us headed to the church to play some volleyball. All was going splendidly. Volleyball was every Friday night and signified the end of a week and the beginning of the wonderful weekend... yippee! We waltzed down to the bus stop and when our chariot arrived we climbed aboard.

It was pretty crowded, which was usual at this time of day. Unfortunately, I was so excited to get to volleyball that I forgot to get my 11 ruble (that's about 35 cents) bus fare ready so I could hand it to the driver on my way in. No matter, I said to myself. I'll just dig it out of my coin purse while we're driving and have someone pass it up.

The next few seconds are a bit of a blur. I took advantage of a red traffic light to release my grip on the one of the poles we relied on to stay upright so I could get my coin purse out. That was my fatal mistake. As luck would have it, the second I let go the bus lurched forward and I went careening with flailed arms towards the herd of people on the bus behind me. In my frantic attempts to catch myself, I managed to end up kneeling on the ground with my arms securely wrapped around the torso of a rather large Russian man and my face smashed in his soft, smelly belly.

Oh, sweet heavens above.

If one could die of embarrassment, I am confident I would have shriveled up right then and there. The split second I spent there felt like decades. I picked myself up, choked out an apology (Thankfully I knew how to do that in Russian), and then put the nail in the coffin by going into a fit of uncontrollable nervous laughter.

And that, my dear friends, is the first and last time I hugged a Russian man. 

Today I am thankful I am not Lindsay Lohan

This week and I haven't been getting along very well. I've been a little stressed out the past few days and it is all coming to a head tonight. Unfortunately, I am a worrier. I get stressed out too easily and too often. It doesn't make any sense... I mean, it doesn't help anything. It just makes it worse.

Thankfully, since I have so much experience with stressing myself out, I also have figured out what I need to do to be happy and let go. Here's a few of the main things.

1. Play or listen to music. I am so thankful my in-laws gave us our piano. There is something so soothing about that instrument. I'm not very good, but I can plunk out a few tunes, and I know a handful of hymns that always bring me peace, especially when I sing along. I believe there is great power in music. 
2. Exercise. Just a quick jog/walk/bike around the block will often be what I need to get out of a funk.
3. Do something creative. I am a recent convert to the world of sewing and crafting. I didn't always enjoy it that much, probably because I thought I failed at it, but I've been gaining more confidence and ability and whether the things I make are good or not it feels good in the process. :)
4. Treat yo' self! (Name that reference and we can be friends forever :P) I'm not saying it should be anything big... a little indulgence goes a long way. 
5. Do something for someone else. If I can get my mind off of myself and onto someone else then I am always much happier. It's a win-win since I make someone else happy too!
6. Cry it out. Tears can be healing, at least for me. When I'm really having a rough time sometimes this has to happen before I can collect myself and put on my big girl panties. ;) Thankfully this doesn't happen often because I think I might be the world's ugliest crier... it's gross. 

At least my whole life isn't a big, public mess, no? 

Things like this help too. See how much worse life could get? 

You're welcome. 

Don't you hate it when you discover you have superpowers at the worst possible moment?

This is something that would happen to me.

Dang gravity, always messing things up.

Have I mentioned how much I love flats?

Again, there goes stupid gravity. 

My personal favorite... hahahahaha!!!

What do you do to get out of a funk?

DIY Bows {Pin a week 9/52}

I love bows. They add such a simple, girly touch. It's also really handy that they are so easy to make. I've been meaning to make some headbands for my little sister and finally got around to it this week.

Here is the tutorial I used for the bows. I need to practice because mine don't look this good yet! :) I think I am making them a little too wide. I've also seen some no-sew tutorials that I want to try where you just use a hot glue gun instead of sewing.

To make the headbands I just strung the elastic through the center of the bow and then stitched it in place. Check out this post to see where I got my elastic for cheap and what you can do with the leftovers!

I'm pretty sure my sister is going to look a lot cuter (thank goodness). ;)

Just in case you forgot how attractive I am.
I might hate myself someday for putting this one up... 

DIY elastic hair ties {Pin a week 8/52}

I have long, almost waist-length hair. It can be a major pain sometimes. Not enough to convince me to cut it off, but enough that something has to be done about it if I want to stay sane. This means that I put my hair in ponytails/buns a lot and go through more than a few hair ties. (Side note: Where the heck do hair ties and bobby pins go?? It's like magic... I buy a new pack and they slowly start disappearing to who knows where. Please tell me I'm not the only one with this problem!) I have seen these nifty elastic hair ties for sale around the internetz but they are CRAZY expensive. I'm not willing to pay $12 for a pack of 5 ($2.40 each!) especially since I know I will probably definitely lose them.

I thought they would be pretty easy to make, though, so I made a trip to Pinterestland and found a nifty tutorial. (Click here to see the one I used)

These are seriously the easiest things to make. Don't believe me? Here's the instructions.

1. Cut elastic
2. Tie a knot
3. Melt the ends with a lighter or candle
4. The end

Wanna know why I love these so much? Of course you do. ;) First of all, they are SO inexpensive. I bought my elastic here for $2.55 for 5 yards. Yep, you read that right. TWO FIFTY-FIVE FOR FIVE YARDS! That's 15 feet, or about 20 hair ties, which means they cost about about $0.12 a hair tie. Score! Second, they are really nice to my hair. They don't leave a crease or tear my hair when I take them out. And third, they look cute on my wrist. Pretty much a win-win-win. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Pine trees and snow go together so perfectly, don't you think?

Today, I'm thankful for tender mercies. I've been feeling under the weather the past couple days. Nothing too serious... sick enough to be miserable and a little whiny (sorry babe :P), but not enough to let myself take a day off from seminary. Although the thought of sleeping in was very enticing, trust me. But that doesn't happen very much around here, since we're either getting up early for seminary to go on some canyoneering adventure. :)

I love the color of these berries, especially in the snow!

Good thing our rosemary plants can handle the snow... 

Today I got lucky, though. Thanks to an unexpected snow day, I got to sleep in and take it easy, which felt so good. I spent the morning reading, watching stuff on Netflix, taking these pictures, and enjoying some delicious peppermint hot cocoa. 

Hot cocoa tastes even better when I drink it out of these cute cups my mom gave me. 

Now, the only thing I need to make this day perfect is to have my husband come home. Snuggles are the best medicine. ;)

Bacon roses {Pin a week 7/52}

Check out the awesome gift I gave my dear, meat-loving husband for Valentine's Day! 

We both got a kick out of it. :) Although I'm pretty sure I think it is funnier than anyone else does... haha!

This was so easy to make, even easier than I thought it would be! I saw a few tutorials on pinterest (this one is pretty good) but ended up kind of doing my own thing. This tutorial tells you to drill a hole in a muffin tin and use that to bake the bacon, but I just used an oven-safe cooling rack and it worked perfectly. 

If you want to make your own, here's what I did! 

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Cover a cookie sheet with foil (to make cleanup easier) and put an oven-safe cooling rack on top.

2. Roll up the bacon and place it on end on the cooling rack. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven. A couple of them started coming unrolled so I laid them on their sides for a few minutes.

3. While it bakes, get your stems ready. I used a 97¢ spray of roses from Walmart and it worked great! I pulled off the roses, removed the petals and the red plastic pieces, and then re-attached the green parts. Wedge a toothpick in the middle to keep the bacon secured.

4. When the bacon looks done, take it out of the oven and let it cool, and then put your bacon buds (catchy, right?) on the stems with the toothpick in the center.

Voila!

Nothing says "I love you" like bacon, right? :)

Hand warmers {Pin a week 6/52}

I saw a few different tutorials for this project, but this one was one of the better ones. 

Here's the ones I made! I gave them to my siblings for Valentine's Day. :)

(P.S. This was last week's project... I just didn't get around to blogging yet.)