This Past Week

School starts today and I'm already planning on dropping a class. Darn sickness.

I'm baaaack.... again!

Okay, I admit it. You probably didn't miss me nearly as much as I'd like to think you did. After all, who takes two separate week-long breaks from their blog in one summer? That's just not very nice, if you ask me. 

Hopefully, though, you haven't forgotten about me. This last week has seemed like the longest non-blogging week ever - I swear it lasted at least a month.

And in case you were wondering, I've done a lot in the past week since I've been gone.

Did I mentioned I missed you?

Here's what I did...

Spent two and a half hours of my life enrolling for school.
Got my $4,000/month medicine... again.
Finished another book in the Bible (one of my goals for the year!).
Watched some more episodes of Psych.
Got to attend what I would call my "home" church (even though it's not in my hometown!).

Here's what I didn't do...

Wrestle a bear.
Re-design the blog.
Finish Radical Together.
Go skydiving.
Anything that required walking more than about 20 feet.

So as you can see, my week off was pretty productive, and yet unproductive at the same time! I mean, who goes a week without wrestling a bear?! A pretty lame week if you ask me.

I ramble, though, mainly to let you know that I'm thankful if you're still around and reading Life Before the Bucket. It's one of the small joys I have in my life and I enjoy sharing it with you. Though I've been more sick than usual as of late, I figure that if taking breaks from blogging helps me continue to blog in the long-run, then it's a good thing. Oh, and then there's that whole getting better from the sickness thing, too (yeah, right).

But since school is starting back up again today, I figure I need to resume blogging regularly, mostly for my sanity. And maybe a little for yours. So, as you can guess, things will be returning to pseudo-normalcy around here this week. And I liiiiike it. Hope you do too!

Sick of Being Sick

Hola, friends!

I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be taking another week-long break, as I did earlier in the summer. The infection in my lungs (the bacteria is called pseudomonas if you want to look it up) went away, but now it's back and kicking my butt.

In the meantime, I'm hoping I'll be able to find time to renovate the good ol' blog - I found a layout that I think I want to implement that is similar to the one that I'm currently using.

Have a good week, and don't miss me too much!

Beauty

In the next 3 days, we'll be in 3 different cities. Gonna be crazy!

It's Friday. And a pretty special Friday, at that. This is the last free Friday I'll have this summer, so I'm relishing in that today.

Part of that relishing (which is a weird word, by the way) includes, as usual...

Five Minute Friday!

If you're a little clueless, allow me to fill you in. Three simple rules:

1. 5 minutes to write - no more, no less. And no editing! Just write!

2. Link back to The Gypsy Mama (where this all originates from!)

3. Go comment on the blog who "links up" (via The Gypsy Mama) before you!

Simple enough, eh?

Here's today's topic:

Beauty

Ready... Set... Go!

You've Got a Friend in Me

For some reason, we checked out like 10 library books, but we leave town on Sunday. We're a little odd.

I'm ecstatic.

(I don't get ecstatic very often.)

You see, I've got a follow-up post for you today from yesterday's post (you should read if you haven't already). And it's much happier - I swear.

You see, I posted yesterday about discovering that a few people really don't give a rip about me. Today, though, I'm turning that 180 and posting about a couple of people that I really care about and that I'd wager have taken a liking to me as well.

Why is this necessary, you ask? Well, for starters, I like it when people like me, and I like to tell others about those people, because they're rockin' awesome. Mainly, though, it was a goal of mine this year (as part of my 111 in 2011) to make a new friend.

And you know what? I one-upped myself - I made two friends!

An Important Lesson Learned

This post is part of my weekly Time for Honesty. I do my best to share something that's on my heart that is honest, sincere, and transparent - something that will get you thinking and get you to be honest with yourself.

There’s a few things that I’ve learned about myself in the last 21 years: 

1. I’m skinny. Ridiculously so. There’s no getting past that.

2. I tan like nobody’s business… when I have time to get in the sun.

3. I’m very friendly and likeable, for the most part.

Now, as you can imagine, I’m not here to be “honest” about being skinny or about my incredible propensity for getting an awesome tan, though both of those things are very true. Instead, I want to share with you an important lesson I’ve learned first-hand this summer:

It’s okay a good thing if not everybody likes you.

In fact, my mother-in-law said just the other day,

“If everybody likes you, you’re lying to someone.”

 She had no clue how right she was.