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

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!

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)