lets take a few seconds to breathe

taken on the day we got our marriage license. {when I was still very much breathing}

So many of you know that when we moved out here to DC M started grad school {which sidenote, he LOVES!} and I started a job at the CFPB {or Consumer Financial Protection Bureau}. Phew. Ok.

I didn't even begin to know what that meant when I accepted the offer. I had an inkling of idea of what the day-to-day duties might be, but nothing solid. You want to know why I agreed to quit a job that I loved and move across the country {and not just because it was obvious I needed a job and M was going to school near}? Because I believed and felt a passion for what the CFPB was all about. The mission of helping the american people. The drive for making sure the 'big bad banks' don't fool us all again. The epic idea of transparency! {you're kidding!} I wanted to be a part of all that.

Well I am, and have been for almost 2 months now. I can't believe its only been that long. Literally its felt like 6 or maybe even 9, but definitely longer than 2. And it has been a series of up & downs {hello, its a startup!!} {and also hello, they changed my job duties drastically- in a good way!!} but I can honestly say how grateful I am for that mission, the very reason I accepted this job - because without that I don't think I could justify 10 hour days {leaving when its dark and getting back when its dark!?} and endless projects and to-do lists and long phone conversations with bank executives. but I do, because I think it is worth it

it also doesn't hurt that my husband doesn't get home until 9 PM and so I don't even have to start cooking dinner until 8, :)

But sometimes I need a few seconds to just breathe. To sit and think and laugh with my husband. To do the things I love outside of work. To just be. 

There are several ways to do this I think, and everyone is different, but I am employing 3 methods over the next week or so:

1. COOKING and BAKING! - On the menu this week: mini chicken pot pies, chicken tortilla soup, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and chocolate silk pie! mmmm, fall!
2. a mini getaway & time with friends - this weekend the hubs and I are going to go to the Annapolis Sat/Sun to look around, eat good food and do whatever the heck we want. Just an hour away and free nights stay and we've got that mini getaway {seriously, I didn't mean for the rhyming, just go with it} and then pumpkin carving/pumpkin seed baking/scary movie watching with our fave couple Ash & Jared! wooooo!
3. exercise! - my darling husband created a {reasonable!!} workout schedule for me, and I'm going to STICK TO IT, dangit.

So here's to breathing!