Blessed

Some days for no apparent reason, Life (or more likely God) slaps me in the face and I am reminded how very blessed I am. Sure there are points in everyone's life where they realize they have a lot to be thankful for but I love when it happens during those little moments during the day. For example, tonight while unloading the dishwasher it just hit me... I'm very lucky to have a dishwasher and that's a very small thing to be thankful for in the grand scheme of things.

More things I am thankful for include... My husband, who is so supportive, thoughtful and incredibly generous and loving. He is constantly doing things to make me smile and pushing me to be a better version of myself. Everyday I am thankful that God has put him in my life and I look forward to our future together. I am frequently surrounded by family and close friends who really do care about me and are always present in my life. They are supportive through the big and little moments in my life. I know it falls in the previous family category but I am also thankful for my mother. She has always been my best friend and biggest cheerleader. Her strength during difficult times never ceases to amaze me and I hope to someday have the relationship with God and the Catholic Church that she has.  My home is something I thought I could have only dreamed of when I was little. It is perfect for my husband and I as well as for future little ones:) After being out of college for two short years I have found a job that I truly enjoy and where I get to use some of my creativity and I am not required to sit in a cube for 8 hours a day. Everyday is different and it makes me smile.

I could go on and on but for the sake of this post I will wrap things up. The main point I guess I'm trying to make in this ramble is that I feel very blessed and I wanted to take a moment to count those blessings. It's easy to get caught up in the petty little everyday problems and it's our choice to look beyond and see the good in life. Remember to take a step back every now and then and count your blessings, especially when things may be/seem tough. This is not something I have consciously tried to do in the past but I plan to attempt in the future. Join me? Hopefully it may brighten our days....power of positive thinking I guess:)

And if counting your blessings doesn't cheer up a bad day this will for sure....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEWVwgDnuzE&feature=colike

photo from here and pinned to my Pinterest board here

I'm an ENFP. What are you?!

I retook the Myers-Briggs Personality type test tonight. I know I have done this before and I don't think I have changed...I'm an ENFP. Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeler, Perceiver. It is so crazy to me how absolutely accurate my personality type describes me.

My mind is constantly filled with ideas as I think I have previously discussed and it turns out this is all due to my personality type. I want to know everything. I want to do everything. Maybe learning to understand my personality type will help me to better understand how to battle the weaknesses of the ENFP.

In an effort to reach my future goals, and not get sidelined by my personality type, I came up with 3 (well sorta 4) very broad goals.

1. Have a Happy Family 

 - Not that I don't right now but I'm sure there is always something to work on. I think it's very important to work towards maintaining relationships with your family. 

2. Do what I love (career focused)

 - I feel like this may be the toughest for me to accomplish because I love so many things. 

3. Become stronger in my faith

 - Definitely religious but I know I have a lot to learn and plenty of room to grow. 

4. Figure out the steps it takes to accomplish goals 1-3. 

Tomorrows goal: Add subcategories/specifics to the above goals

For all you ENFP's out there!

Once a Day...

I have a million ideas and my brain swarms with them constantly. With these ideas comes a slight problem...I become so overwhelmed with all my ideas that I never accomplish any of them. How frustrating is that?!

Today while my brain was whirling about I had a thought...Do one thing every day that will help me to eventually reach my future goals. Not exactly a ground breaking idea I realize, but I still feel like it has potential. Lots of times I get frustrated because I like instant gratification. Let's face it, who doesn't?! Hopefully with setting short term daily goals for myself I can one day reach them all.

Tomorrow's goal: Make a list of my goals:)

Today's goal: Go to bed early enough that I get something done tomorrow! :)

Free Martha Stewart Magazine Subscription!

Wow, so I stumbled across this website called Recyclebank. Basically it's a website that encourages you to do your part in regards to recycling and saving the planet which is always good. You know what's awesome though? They give you points for doing different things involved with saving the planet and then you can redeem your points for awesome things! I signed up for this website yesterday and played around on it a little bit today and I earned enough points to get a years-subscription to the Martha Stewart living magazine for FREE!!! How totally awesome is that?! Plus I still have points left over. I'm pretty excited about this and can't wait to earn other stuff with my points.

To check it out for yourself just go here. Plus if you go through my link it earns me more points. Once you have joined you can get a link and share it to earn points for yourself. Super fun stuff!!

One Day at a Time

What a wonderful weekend! My husband works out of town quite a bit so unfortunately we spend a lot of our time counting down the days when we get to see each other again. Lucky for me I got to spend an entire wonderful weekend with him. We didn't do anything spectacular, in fact we didn't do a whole lot of anything but it was nice to just spend some time together that didn't involve two cell phones and a distance of 500+ miles. 

Seth got home Friday night around 6:30 and we ate some leftover chili and watched a movie. Is this what it's like to be a grown up? Leftovers and a movie and I'm completely happy?! 

Saturday morning we slept in, if you can call it that when you are out of bed by 9:30. We had a guy come to look at our "pond" to give us a bid and tell us when he might be able to start working on it. Our "pond" doesn't really resemble a pond at this point in time...more a giant crater in the earth that was once a pond but has since silted in. Last summer Seth dug a hole through the dam so the water could drain and it could dry out. We had to do this so we can make the crater deeper and wider before it fills back up with water. Apparently the ground needs to dry out a lot more before they can bring the excavating equipment in and get to to work. 

We spent the afternoon wandering around Home Depot. Seriously, we were probably there more than two hours looking at paint for the bedroom and master bath as well as tile for the master bath. The tile that is in there now is definitely not my favorite. It's little one inch tiles with dark grout that always creeps me out because I feel like it looks dirty even though I know it's not. I'm also hoping to get some new lights under the kitchen cabinets. I feel like my kitchen is so dark when I'm trying to cook and I hate not being able to see. 

After we got home I decided to cook the Pot Roast I talked about a couple posts back. It actually turned out pretty good considering it was the first one I had ever made. Seth doesn't really like Pot Roast (crazy, I know!) but he said mine tasted pretty good. Apparently he still doesn't love it but I hope it has to do with the fact that he just isn't fond of the dish and not just my cooking:) I have been known to leave out ingredients and burn things frequently. I must say that I'm getting much better though!

Sunday we got up early and went to church. We sat with my grandparents just like I have for almost my whole life. My mom plays the piano and sits with the choir so I always get the special seat right next to my Grandma...25 years and I still think it's the best seat in Church! Once church was over we stopped at the gas station for our little ritual of donuts, Pepsi for me, Mt. Dew for Seth and a news paper so I can check out the ads and clip my coupons. 

Once Seth's parents got out of Church (they go to a different Church) we went to their house to say hi and visit our nephew, Ryder. Seriously, he is the funniest cutest kid ever! He is 2 and LOVES his horses. He has all kinds, stuffed, plastic, the kind that are on a stick and a huge one that is about 3 times the size of him. Ryder also showed us how he rides Buddy, the real horse! He just sits on Buddy bareback and holds the reins as he rides Buddy in a circle around the pen. It is so cute to watch him and you can tell he loves it. I'm so mad at myself that I didn't have my camera with me to take a photo. Hopefully I will have it next time so I can post a photo. 

When we left Seth's parents house we decided instead of cleaning the garage we should forget about the chores and just take a nap. We are pretty good nappers....I sleep on the couch and Seth get's his new recliner. Give us 5 minutes and a boring tv show and we are both out!

Seth woke up before me and I found him outside washing my car windows and putting new windshield wipers on my car. Isn't he sweet! We cooked some yummy cheeseburgers for dinner and relaxed some more before heading to bed. 

Sad to wake up this morning and know when I got home from work, Seth would be on his way to work and it would be another countdown until we get to see each other again. Hopefully this won't last forever and until it ends I guess we will just take it one day at a time...

One of my favorite wedding photos! It shows how happy he makes me!

Feel the Burn

I started working out with the Underground Lab (UGL) during the last week of July. I discovered the UGL from a girl who told me how she goes there to work out and it kicks her butt but she loves it. She was even dedicated enough to go workout about 5:30 in the morning 3 times a week....let me just clarify that I am not , nor will I ever be, a morning person so luckily they had other time options.

My camp, lovingly know as Boot Camp started during one of the most sweltering weeks of the summer. It was outside on the black rubbery track and I'm pretty sure that I could wring the sweat out of my t-shirt when we were done for the night. I was determined to not let the heat kick my butt because I wanted wedding arms. What are wedding arms you might ask? Well let me tell you. They are those sexy wedding arms that all the brides have in the magazines. I knew I hired a great wedding photographer but lets face it, I wasn't going to pay her thousands of extra dollars to make sure I didn't have jiggly arms in the photos. So, I did what every other crazy bride-to-be does...exercised my butt off...figuratively and literally.

The UGL is always a challenging workout but you leave knowing that you accomplished something and that makes you want to come back for more. After almost 3 months I finally got to walk down the aisle and show of my guns. My photos turned out great and I was very proud of myself. (photos to come because I can't copy them from the photogs website)

Fast forward a couple weeks...We have the wedding, go on the honeymoon, write thank you notes, I move in...blah blah blah and I skipped Boot Camp. After 2 months without it and telling myself repeatedly that I needed to go back I finally did! During the 1st week of January. Nothing like a little New Years spirit to get you off the couch and back to the Lab. I'm happy to say I have been to 5 classes since restarting and it's still just as great as it always was. Plus, I have a new goal....Get in shape and build up the muscles so that when we decide to have kids hopefully childbirth will be a little easier:/ Childbirth, now that's a scary thought!

Thought I would write this post to help remind me if I ever feel the need to skip a class again. While the class may be difficult and I may not always (never) be the best, I am there. I am working on making myself a better person not only physically but emotionally. Those endorphins are amazing!! Take the leap and join the Lab if you live close to Lawrence, you won't be disappointed!

I will leave you with a little video of some of the stuff we do during a class at the lab.

That's Very Pinteresting!

There is only one word that can accurately describe my feelings towards Pinterest -- LOVE!! If you don't have never heard of Pinterest or don't have an account yet you are seriously missing out. For those of you who aren't quite sure what Pinterest is all about here is my take...

Pinterest is basically a website that allows you to organize things you find online into a visually appealing creative list.

For example:
Say you're on the Pioneer Woman's website and you happen to stumble across her recipe for "Perfect Pot Roast". Well, it's 10pm and you know you probably aren't going to cook a pot roast at 10pm. You also know that you have a lot coming up during the next week and you might be eating a lot of popcorn or cereal for dinner because you won't have time to cook. The recipe just looks so darn delish and mouthwatering though that you don't want to forget about it, should you decide to attempt making a pot roast in three months. So here's what you do, you just click this cute little button at the top of your tool bar (at least that's what I call it) that says "Pin It". When you click the "Pin It" button your screen changes into rows of the beautiful pot roast photos. Next, you decide which photo is the one that makes you drool and you hold your mouse over it and then select the "Pin This" button that appears. A little box while pop up and let you decide what "board" (basically a category) you want to pin your Pot Roast photo too. I put mine on my "Delish Recipes" board (you can name your own boards). You can also write a short description underneath the photo in case you might forget what was so special about it:) Ta-Da! Now it's ready and waiting.

Seven months later and you decide today is the day! I'm going to attempt a pot roast. All you have to do is navigate to your "Delish Recipes" board and click on your Pot Roast pin. It will take you right back to the Pioneer Woman's website where the recipe is located. How amazing is that?!!

Doesn't her recipe look SO YUMMY!

Think I'm going to try making this for my loves (aka: husband) this weekend. Crossing my fingers that it will at least be edible...

I Love Lists...

The title says it all...I LOVE lists. Any kind of list. I may even have a slight obsession with them. Here is a list of reasons why I think I love lists so much:)

1. They help me organize my thoughts
2. Keep me from forgetting things
3. Everything is organized
4. Putting a checkmark by a completed task makes me feel AMAZING
5. It's fun to look back at them to see what I have accomplished and what I still have left to do

I think that many people make "to do" lists and I also make these but I make many more lists...in fact...I write lists of future lists I want to make. Here are some samples of lists I make...

1. To do Lists
2. Bucket Lists
3. Lists with bills
4. Grocery Lists
5. Errands to run
6. Gift lists
7. Lists of recipes I want to make
8. Housecleaning lists
9. Lists of topics that I want to learn about/write about

I would definitely say that I'm an "idea" person. So, with all of those ideas there is also a lot of chaos. Writing a list helps me to organize the chaos so I can see everything clearly and I can always add to it if I think of something else. I used to have trouble falling asleep at night because of so many thoughts swirling around in my head so I started my lovely list writing habit. I noticed that putting down all of my thoughts on paper helps my mind to relax because I know everything I'm thinking at that particular moment will still be there in the morning...hand written in one of my lovely list notebooks.  That's write I have notebooks dedicated solely to lists. There is nothing better than a brand new notebook or notepad just waiting to get written on.

I know this post is probably more than a little random but I'm pretty sure my list making habit will come up in the future so I thought a little background might be nice. It's off to bed for me with another fun day of office work ahead of me...If you're bored feel free to count how many times I said "list" in this post:) Nighty-night!

Oh you know, just my Christmas Card List:)

The Next Extreme Couponer? Nah, I'd rather eat popcorn

So, I must admit, I'm ADDICTED to the show "Extreme Couponers". To be perfectly honest though I have watched my mom use coupons for years and probably save thousands of dollars during that time. She gets it. She watches the ads and buys what's on sale and then puts it in the pantry until she needs it. If she doesn't need it she will put it in the food pantry basket at church.

Anyways, I have been couponing for a little while now. I started back before I got married because it drives me crazy to pay full price for things and I figured it was a good way to save money for the wedding. I like to think I'm getting better at it:)

My sales receipt and the goods I got for steals!!

Today I had 65% savings on my total bill. While not as extreme as the shoppers on the tv show, I was very excited about my deals! I bought 8 total items and only spent $13.84 while I saved $22.03!! The items are things that we will definitely use and aren't always easy to get huge sales on. I used a combination of store sales, e-coupons,  manufacturers coupons, and my store card to save.

As you can see...I bought zero food today. Luckily for me I also use coupons on food so my cabinets are full. I guess it's kind of ironic that my cabinets are full of food and I eat popcorn for dinner:) I'm also addicted to popcorn but that's a post for another day!

A New Year, A New Adventure

Well, I decided to start a blog. Why, you might ask?

• I love blogs. 
• I waste insane amounts of time on other people's blogs. 
• I think it's fascinating to get a glimpse into other people's lives. 
• I consider blogs to be the "modern day" version of a  diary or journal. 
• Basically, I want to have some type of record of my life.

Hopefully that last bullet point doesn't sound snobish... I don't know that my life has been, or ever will be, an exciting piece of history that someone might appreciate someday. However, I do know that my mom has always been Amazing at keeping a journal of her vacations, her children's lives (including me!), and other events that have happened, which I absolutely LOVE! It's so fun to look back through those journals and read about all the little details that you would have otherwise forgotten. Many of the details are just that, small details that may not seem to matter but somehow they do...to me I guess it is all about the history and the little things that have shaped you into who you are today. 

Which leads me into my next point...Who am I? 

My name is Julie. I'm 25 and live in a small town in Kansas. I married my best friend and high school sweetheart, Seth, 3 months ago and I couldn't be happier. Plenty more to come about Seth in future posts:) I'm insanely indecisive and on occasions have to have everything be perfect...one of the reason's it took me so long to start a blog was because I couldn't decide on a perfect name or what my first blog post should be. Lame, I know. I absolutely love anything creative and am sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of ideas swirling around in my brain. Traveling and eating are two of my favorite things and I like to think I do both well:) My cooking can sometimes be a little sketchy, but now that I'm married I'm trying to expand my arsenal of edible dishes...spaghetti and hamburger helper can get a little old after 3 nights in a row. I'm a night owl by nature which is not amazing when you have a typical 8-5 job. I believe in God but am enjoying my time on Earth for now. In the future, Seth and I hope to have children and until then we are enjoying married life as we know it. 

I guess I will end my first blog post here and try to fall asleep before my alarm decides it wants to be thrown across the room. 

Photo of me and the hubs on the best day ever! (aka: wedding day)