Fall = Favorite

So, fall is my FAVORITE time of the year. I love everything about it. I love the gorgeous light...all day. I love the colors of the leaves, and the cooler (but not cold) weather. I love sweatshirts, scarves, bonfires, and chili. I also love anything pumpkin. Pumpkin cookies, seeds, candles, the list goes on.

Once fall rolls around every year, I start to feel all festive and cozy. When I feel festive and cozy I love to decorate and bake (same phenomenon happens at Christmas). And clearly, for fall, pumpkin recipes are king. A few days ago, I tried a new to me recipe, cream cheese stuffed spiced pumpkin muffins (grab the recipe here).

HELLO. So delish. We got the recipe from Annie's Eats, a blog that Dave of all people introduced me to. She is amazing, has great recipes and easy to follow directions with each of them (key for me)! Also, she is a Doctor, mom and blogger extrodinare. I'm sorry - that's amazing. Who has time for all of that? I'm majorly impressed.

 She has great photos of her food too, makes you want to try the recipe...immediately.

 Here is a pic of Dave and I's first muffin attempt. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. Happy Fall everyone!

 

101 Things in 1001 Days: Not Totally Forgotten. Part I.

So this great list of ambitious things I set out to do by the spring of 2013 has been sorely neglected for much too long.  Here is a partial update and explanation of everything I have done to date.  Since this blog is public now, some of them deserve an explanation, really for self-preservation reasons, so I don’t seem like a huge creep/bitch/etc.  I’m going to post updates on 25 at a time, because let’s be honest, no one wants to read about 101 things I’m doing all at once.

1. Get better at photography. Have some work worthy to post on this blog.  This is a good one.  I am loving taking pics and learning about my camera but I have a LONG way to go.  I really want to keep working with some of the manual settings and master those.  On auto though, I like to think I’m pretty good. However, with the onset of fall classes, my spare time has seriously dwindled.  So it’s a goal of mine to pick up the camera more often this fall.

2. Buy a Coach purse.  Have not done this yet, and honestly, probably won’t.  Ha.  How’s that for commitment?  With our financial situation right now, I really would just spend my money on other things.  But we’ll see.

3. Take my husband out for a fabulous date.  Hmmm.  Well he’s taken me out for lots of fabulous dates.  Does that count?  Probably not.  I’ll work on that.

4. Learn how to grill.  Totally rocked this one.  Due to Dave’s foot injury this summer, if we wanted to enjoy grilled food – it was up to me.  Now, I’m not going to lie and say that there were not a few pieces of charred chicken in there, but I did find some great marinades and cook pork, burgers and chicken.

5. Cook paella - the full recipe. Including crazy seafood like mussels.  I have not done this one yet – maybe over my Christmas break.  Paella takes FOREVER to create, but would be fun on a day off!

6. Do something unexpectedly nice for each of my fabulous friends.  Uh.  Need to work on this one too.  All I know is when I get a card out of the blue, or a nice phone call from a friend, it totally makes my day.  And I want to do that for my fab friends.  So I’ll get on that.

7. Blog - about everything and nothing. Clearly I have done this one, not to the extent that I would have liked, but hopefully my Pinterest inspired revival will take it where I want it to go.

8. Print out and frame my wedding pictures.  Definitely done.  Dave makes fun of me when I say we don’t have very many wedding pictures up in our house, but I always feel like I could have more.  We got two canvases done in for above our bed as well, LOVE those.

9. Read 5 books that enhance my knowledge of meaningful subjects. Hmm.  Well I would say over the past year or so, there are a couple of good (aka not beach read) books that I have read.  I LOVED The Help, such a great book.  I’m also reading Obama’s book – Dreams from My Father which is a good one as well.  I think that’s it.  Any recommendations are welcome!

10. Run a full marathon.  Does a 5k count?  No?  Ok I’ll get on that.  I think I’d need a training partner for that one. Any volunteers?

11. Go skiing. Not yet.

12. Make a cool martini recipe for friends.  Also not yet – have a very cool recipe book though. 

13. Do everything I can so Dave can buy a new car. Well, not sure how much I have done on that one, but it looks like with all of his new job stuff panning out that he will get one!

14. Get a new king bedroom suite. Done and done. It's amazing.

15. Plant a garden in my back yard.  No garden yet.  We did organize our firewood though.  I know it’s not really related, but it also is in our backyard.

16. Buy nice running clothes to run my marathon in.  See above.

17. Set definite career/life goals for the next 5 years. I thought this would be my hardest one, but once I took the plunge, it was not too bad.  Don’t get me wrong it’s been a lot of work and struggle and time and money spent, but I totally think going back to nursing school will be a great thing for me and my family.

 
18. Print out and frame the rest of Robby's pictures on our living room wall. 2 more down (Yosemite and Grand Canyon).  We have one more pano of LA, but I’m not sure where to put the frame, so I haven’t done it yet.

19. Finish our travel wall in the dining room.  I’m making progress on this!! But, I really nee d to start adding in more interesting frames, with some dimension to really make it look the way I want.  A full wall of $3 Walmart frames just isn’t going to cut it.

20. Start and finish the following scrapbooks: high school, college, europe in 2005, europe with the fam/dave, wedding and honeymoon.  Not sure how this is ever going to get done.  I did start my most recent Europe trip book as Dave’s Birthday gift, so that now leaves me at 4 half done books.  Awesome.

21. Go camping. Legit camping. We went in the summer of 2010 to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee with Marcus and Julie. SO much fun.  We definitely want to go again now that we have Dexter though.  He would LOVE it.

22. Get patio furniture.  Thank you Jan Yar for moving!

23. Send 10 random cards to family and friends.  Nope.

24. Go snowmobiling.  Nope.

25. Label the wine/campagne corks we have saved. YES.  We’ve also continued to add many more to the collection. And, I just found a fun idea to spice up the container I have them in.  I’ll try and do it and post a photo soon!

So this ended up being much longer than I thought.  Props to you if you made it all the way though.  Parts II – IV  and a photo post to come soon!

INSPIRED

HOLY COW.

Yes, in case you were wondering, I am very aware that “holy cow” is a 1990’s, grade-school teacher saying, Full House style phrase, but TOTALLY what popped into my head when I joined Pinterest today.

WHY has it taken me so long to do this? WHERE was this when I was planning my wedding? HOW can I make pinning my full time job!!?? Needless to say, I am in love.

What a great idea. Whoever started Pinterest is a genius.

So, enough with the gushing. I’ll move on to the inspired portion of this post, which requires a little bit of backstory. So here goes. Lately I have been a blog reading fool. I have a few blogs I read regularly, and then I link from those blogs to all sorts of other blogs. I love food blogs, family blogs, my husband’s music blog (of course), photography blogs and the list goes on. I always read those blogs and wish that I could be interesting enough for people to read, at least while they’re bored at work.

Well get ready people. I’m going to be interesting. Pinterest pushed me over the edge today. I have all sorts of renewed motivation to make this blog a fun place to spend some time during the middle of your 8 - 5 grind (or 7 to 7 if you're one of my nurse friends). Random for sure, but fun. If you know me, you know my life is all over the place. I work full-time, I go to school part-time, I go to a wedding like every 4 days, I play with my pup, I take pictures, I go to church, I pretend that I am a fabulous chef/baker and try all sorts of recipes that I have no business cooking, I hang out with my super fun husband, I clean, I try to make my house cute on a limited budget, I run (LOVE to run, but, not going to lie, it’s generally the first thing to go with all of the above going on) , I drink lots of wine and volunteer with little kiddos (not at the same time of course).

So don’t expect a totally clear mission from this revival of my blog, it will inevitably be just like my life, busy, slightly disorganized, and totally random. I’ll talk about puppies, and God, my new favorite cocktail, and everything in between. But I hope you’ll enjoy reading about the craziness that is my life, as much as I enjoy writing about it.

Burdens To Bear

So I had an amazing, clarifying, eye opening experience a few weeks ago. It happened, and instantly, after my initial surprise had passed, my first thought was “I need to write a blog about this”. But then I got to work and had a ridiculous number of emails waiting for me, and so it goes. My day was gone. And then the next and the next and the next.

However, this experience has been with me for a few weeks now, and I still want to share, so here goes. At the time, I had just had a job interview a few days prior, for a job I was REALLY excited about, that pays a LOT more than my current job (which subsequently would make things a LOT easier on Dave and I). I felt like I had done well, but then as time passed I started to over analyze, and rethink and wonder what I could have done better. By this point, I had talked myself into thinking it had gone terribly (which it didn’t). But, it was unbelievably stressing me out.

I was driving to work (and stressing, clearly) when I remembered the old phrase “give it to God”. So I just started praying (well, really just talking to God/myself). I think I said something along the lines of “Oh my God, I cannot handle this anymore. I do NOT need anymore stress in my life right now. I can’t do anything about that interview, WHY is it driving me insane??” Or something similar, but probably more crazy and rambling. And then literally, in that instant, I was filled with this HUGE sense of calm and peace. Seriously unbelievable. It was like all the stress I had (about that, and many other things) was just GONE. Totally gone. I remember thinking, holy shit – I should have done that a LONG time ago! I know there is a lot of scripture, and verses and even poetry about God bearing the weight of our problems, and getting us through seemingly impossible times, but I have NEVER experienced anything like that before. Ask and you shall receive I guess!

But then, my mind starts working and thinks, “WOW that feeling was SO amazing, could I ever, myself, give that feeling to someone else? Could I ever bear their burdens with that much grace and unending love? If I could ever in my life provide even a fraction of that sort of peace to someone else, how great would that be?” So, as it turns out, as most of you know, there are just a few people in my life right now who have some pretty heavy stuff going on. So, I have a few potential burdens to choose from. Kidding. Clearly if we could all do that so powerfully, we would all be God.

But, this experience has certainly opened my eyes to what the simple act of providing kindness, and grace and peace to others can do. I have challenged myself to become more gracious, and giving, and if I can, in anyway possible, make anothers burden easier to bear, then I will do just that.

This summer has been really, really challenging for me, but I honestly think a lot of the problem is the way I have been approaching the hurdles that keep popping up. Rather than feeling put out, or unappreciated or forgotten, I am starting to look at this time as an opportunity to use the God-given gifts, and health, and time that I have to serve those in my life with patience and love.

So, if you are ever really struggling or hurting or wondering, do NOT underestimate the power of a little, desperate, very ineloquent, rush hour prayer. It can do HUGE things in your life if you let it.

If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all

I love this little gem of a quote from Bambi (I believe?). Lately, it feels like there is negativity EVERYWHERE. From comments on Facebook, emails at work and even conversations at home there is a lot of "blah" flying around out there. So in celebration of this beautiful Friday, I wanted to post a few happy things that I am wonderfully grateful for!

1. Sunshine
2. Finding out that the exact outfit I wanted to wear today was clean and folded (rare occurrence in our house)
3. Awesome, supportive friends
4. Sushi lunches with my dad
5. Going to see my cousins tomorrow
6. Dave's ankle finally feeling better
7. A good night's sleep
8. Dexter
9. Really nice love Facebook messages :)
10. Low stress work days
11. Meeting Lillian Marie this weekend
12. Friday nights at home

Happy Friday Everyone!

Babies, Babies, Babies!

No - not my babies, just to clarify.

It seems to be baby season among my close friends, co-workers, and neighbors. So many tiny ones expected in the next few months!

I wanted to say welcome to the world to the first of those tiny ones, one special little girl, Miss Lillian Marie Weigle. She was born on Wednesday, June 1 at 10:38 a.m. weighing 5 pounds and 14 ounces. Already tall and skinny like her mom Lauren!

Lauren is one of my best friends and I am so excited to watch her, Kris and Lillian as they start their little family!! I remember almost crying when Lauren told me she was pregnant last November - it's weird how you react when you find out a friend is pregnant (and by you, I mean me, clearly :). It's such a huge thing! And of course I remember us talking about babies and weddings all through college, it's hard to believe all of that is here.

Congratulations Lauren and Kris! Much love to this new little family!

Going Public.

Ok - so about a month ago I posted the link to this blog on my facebook page. BIG STEP for me, who, like Dave said - had been using this blog as an online journal for the past year.

I don't know what made me do it, finally make all these ramblings public, but I did, and there's no going back now (not that anyone has read this except Dave and my friend Erica :).

I will not lie, the mere fact that the link to the blog is out there has made me hesitant to post anything for fear that it wouldn't be good enough or everyone would think I was boring. Hence, the lack of postings for the last month or so.

But today - I finally have something POSITIVE and a little bit of note to post. Like most people close to me know, I have been BEYOND stressed out lately to the point of near emotional breakdown. Which again - if you know me, you know that is not all that common. School and work have been dragging me up, down, all over the place for the past month and a half. BUT, today I took my last test in my first nursing school pre-req and finished the class with an A. HUGE sign of relief here.

This whole decision to go back to school has already been a crazy journey and I'm not even close to finishing - but today helped reinforce that it will be worth it!

So all you people out there (or Dave and Erica) welcome to my world.

Hopefully I'll have some more deep worldy insight for you soon!