random friday.

W-A-T-E-R

Instead of a thankful list, I'll give you a random list.  Here is my week in sentences.

+John and I were reunited after a weekend apart and we celebrated by buying a laptop and The Prince of Egypt at Walmart.  TPoE was only $2.96 and I was way more excited about that than a laptop.  I kept exclaiming my excitement and singing the Mariah/Whitney song.  Don't worry I watched the movie right away, before we even opened up the box containing the computer.  Priorities.

+I drank a ridiculous amount of water (super ridiculous!) and did jumping jacks to get my blood flowing so I could get some blood drawn for labs.  I have really crappy veins so I have to work really hard to not have a horrible experience with giving blood/getting IVs.  My preparation worked!  But then I promptly passed out and laid on a dirty floor for a while.  Success?

+John's friend Pete arrived Wednesday night to visit with us for a few days.  His sense of humor is the best ever.  He has a special OhioHorses.com license plate that has a horse's head on it and it just says "HEY."  Hey-larious.

+We called a spade a spade and just went out to dinner last night at our favorite restaurant in town...  For the third time this week.  Lazy.  (But.  Delicious.)

+It's Friday Friday Gotta Get Down on Friday!  If I were a mom of young children I would want the Fierce Fab to be my babysitters... they are so darn cute.  I found some old pictures, so that's what that is up top.  It's from a play I did 5+ years ago called The Miracle Worker and I played Annie Sullivan, teaching Helen Keller how to spell/say/know "water."  I'm a big deal.

Happy Friday!

busy season.

We are starting another busy season in our lives.  The end of summer and fall always bring visitors and places to go and people to see.  It's lovely.  I love having people over to our house and entertaining, but sometimes you do need a break - so it's been nice that we've had a little bit of a lull.  John was away this weekend, but I was still around... but now our "busy season" is officially starting.  This week we have a friend visiting and this weekend I have training for working the equestrian events for the Special Olympics in my area (I'm SO excited because I used to work Special Olympics for years but only in the swimming events, this is my first time with horses -- this year I've been working with a therapeutic riding program & will be helping some clients in the Special Olympics), visiting Kentucky & bringing our friend Shane along with us, John has another trip planned, we both have a wedding to attend (anyone remember my "housewife?" Well, she's getting married in October and John is marrying her! how fun!), the actual Special Olympics, then my birthday & Halloween (we might try and go for a trip), and then Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we might be hosting some friends for that... PHEW.  I'm exhausted typing all this out. 

I've been good about posting more lately and I'm going to try and keep it up.  I'll just say that the "schedule" option is awesome.  I make a bunch of posts at once when I have time and then schedule them to post through the week.  Brilliant!

So. Many. Words.  Okay, here have a picture of my baby girl.  She's my favorite.  We had a bunch of major cuddle sessions this past weekend while John was gone. 

thankful list.

I've recently found myself with more "computer time" on my hands which means... no excuse to not blog (somewhat) regularly.  Recently I posted my progress on my 52 Books in 2012, and on that list I included The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin as my favorite non-fiction book I've read so far this year.  One thing that book taught me is to regularly list and appreciate the things in your life you are thankful for.  I have to say, for a year now my whole outlook has changed quite a bit -- I've tried to cultivate a "Joy Choosing" attitude and bring positivity into every aspect of my life.  So I keep regular gratitude lists in my head, but maybe I'll start sharing some with you.  Sometimes I get, like, weirdly private online and tend to be kind of vague -- so I'm sorry if some things are vague, I just like to keep my personal life pretty close to my heart & small circle of confidants. 

But here are five things I'm thankful for right now (kind of in the spirit of the old livejournal days with "Friday Fives.").

1.  John.  Are you sick of me gushing about him yet?  Too bad.  Skip this one then.  He has to be number one on this list because he is the ultimate positive force in my life.  It's a joy to have someone like him be my best friend - positive, giving, smart.


2.  Flowers.  Oh how so many have bloomed the past few months.  Flowers in the garden or fresh-cut in a vase, they make me so happy.  John and I have gotten in the habit of almost always having star-gazers in the house... they smell amazing and have bright blooms.


3.  Books.  Okay, we get it, Rhianna, you like to read.  But I can't help it... when I'm not working or visiting people, I'm most likely reading.  Books take up a sizeable chunk of my time.  I'm so thankful for books.  I love that they broaden my mind, teach me, take me on adventures, let me cry, and let me laugh.  I just treasure them so much.


4.  Quiet Mornings.  I am a morning person.  I like to get up early and start my day... but at the same time I hate to talk or interact until I've slowly woken up -- I like to lie in the bed for a while with my eyes open & get used to the idea of the day.  I love starting my day quietly, wrapped in a blanket with a mug of hot tea or coffee, reading the news or watching a mindless tv program on Netflix.


5.  My New Job.  Normally something I wouldn't share online, but I've been super lucky in the job market down here in NC.  I've been fortunate enough to have to agonize over whether to stay at my current job or take a new one that was offered.  I took the new one -- time for a new adventure.  I finished up my first week and I have to say, I'm so glad I took the job.  I'm in the most positive, progressive, and female-empowering environment I've ever worked.  So it's making my thankful list.

what I'm reading. [52 books update]

In previous posts I've mentioned that my goal for this year is to read 52 books.  Since it's just shy of the halfway point, and I'm actually sitting at a computer (rare - I hate sitting at a computer nowadays), I figured I'd go ahead and post the books I've read so far this year.  It's neat to see everything I've read - I like the idea of keeping a list.  It's also convenient that I keep the list on my phone in a Note, so when I'm out and about and recommending books to people, I just pull out my Books Read note and show them.

Below is the list.  Special notations about the books in parentheses (I wish I could give my thoughts on all the books, but there are too many & this post will be long enough as is... ask me about any of them if you want to know what I thought!).  If I super duper liked the book, I put it in bold.  I've also given a note on favorite fiction, nonfiction, YA, and travel writing.

2012 Books (so far)

• Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? And other concerns (Mindy Kaling. duh)
• Pawnee: the greatest town in America (we keep this, and America... in our bathroom - both fun to reread while you're doin your business ;)
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
• The Lost Continent: travels in small-town America (favorite Travel Writing book this year)
• Down and Out in Paris and London
• Delirium
• Matched
• Crossed (2nd book in Matched trilogy)
• The Fault in our Stars (favorite YA book I've read this year)
• Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe
• Variant
• Where She Went
• Graveminder
• A Brief History of Time
• The Name of the Star
• Ender's Game (didn't like this as much as everyone else)
• Pandemonium (2nd book in Delirium trilogy)
• 1Q84
• Earth (audiobook)
• Steve Jobs (audiobook)
• A Long Way Down
• Birthday Letters (a book of poetry)
• America the book
• Lyra's Oxford
• The Kind Diet
• Mother Tongue
• Book of Mormon (still reading this - it's interesting to say the least)
• Across the Universe
• The Happiness Project (favorite non-fiction I've read this year - great life advice!)
• Divergent (I don't know why this YA series is hyped up... my least favorite of the YA series I've read)
• The Night Circus (FAVORITE BOOK THIS YEAR. also, obviously, favorite fiction book this year. I was so sad when I ended this book, I wanted to keep reading)
• A Million Suns (2nd book in Across the Universe trilogy)
• Insurgent (2nd book in Divergent trilogy)
• The Paris Wife (this book made me kinda think all the Lost Generation are scummy people that shouldn't be romanticized... but whatever -- their literature is still pretty spectacular, you can't argue with that.)

I'm so sorry I don't have the authors names, I didn't record them after I finished reading them and don't want to go back and look them all up, even though I could probably guess the names of almost all of them.  But if you want to check them out, just google the titles... you know how the internet works, don't you readers?  ;)

These are all just books I've read for the FIRST time.  I made the goal of 52 books so I would expand and not just fall back on comfort books.  Although, I have reread a few comfort books this year... namely Space: a memoir (my most-read book of all time, it's like a security blanket to me) and a few Harry Potters.

Currently, I'm making my way through all the Game of Thrones books.  I was given the books a while ago by a family member and told I must read them and watch the series (I'm probably the last person on Earth to jump on this bandwagon, but I've had a huge stack of library books to get through and we don't have tv, so no HBO).  Martha (the woman that gave me her copies) left her hand-written notes tucked in the book, so it's helpful to have her thoughts on how to keep the characters straight -- especially for someone like me that hasn't seen the tv show.  I'm loving it so far. 

Well, that's that.  Can't wait to see what my list looks like at the end of the year... so far I'm on track for 52 as long as I don't slack off this summer. 

What are you reading?!

8 Weeks: Week Four - Loving Yourself

Okay, so I missed last week.  Here's my excuse... I was packing up the last of stuff in Kentucky, partying with 30+ family members in celebration of my Gramps being 90, getting home late Sunday night and spending the rest of the week unpacking/organizing, and then going to Mister's old apartment and packing up the last of his things.   We finally FINALLY have all of our things here (BOTH OF US), and I'm slowly getting the rest of his things unpacked and organized, while staying on top of laundry and meals.  I will be so happy once I've unpacked the very last box.  I might have a celebration just for that box.  I should also note here, that with every item we've packed, moved, hauled, whatever our decision to stay put for a while was made stronger.  While we aren't 100% sure right now, we are very strongly leaning towards staying in this little rental house until the end of the year -- originally we were going to try and find something by the end of summer and move again, but we are both just so physically and mentally exhausted from moving every single day for the past month. 
Annnnnnnnnnnd... back on track!
The topic last week was Healthy Eating.  Something I used to be not so great at, but honestly I've been doing so well with it in the past month.  I've said in previous posts that our location alone makes healthy eating not only super easy but eating UNhealthy really really hard.  What I mean by this is there are no fast food restaurants conveniently near by, the town is super "crunchy" (aka "buy local!" and catering to organic foods), and so as long as the two of us make our major shopping trip a smart one, we try to only buy good-for-us foods.  I've been cooking A LOT.  Which was one of my own personal summer goals and it's been pretty awesome.   Aside from our road trip food stops that weren't always as healthy as they could be, we've eaten really decent colorful meals and haven't had too many gross things.  We've been taking our vitamins, drinking our smoothies (remember how I told you the Mcakes Way of the Smoothie a couple months ago), laying off the soda a bit (I'd be lying if I said completely - ha!  maybe someday), eating lots of greens, etc.  So yay!

And noooooooow --- this week is Loving Yourself.  Probably will be one of the harder ones for me.  I have a lot of insecurities, especially where my looks are concerned.  I've gained bit of weight on my small frame in the past year (at first it was extremely depressed weight, and then it 180∘turned to being so stupidly happy and going on unhealthy eating dates weight), but whatever the reason, the extra pounds add extra insecurities.  I usually don't talk about my personal body-image insecurities online so it might seem like I don't have them, but I do.  Coming up with goals was hard for me.  But, here goes:

1. Make a list of 5 things I like about my body.  Either write them down or speak them out loud to myself.  Go over this list every day for the week.
2. Put on "real" clothes everyday.  Some days I don't leave the house, and I'm doing household chores and unpacking so I like to stay in my sweats.  I need to make the effort every day to put on clothes even when I don't leave.  When I look decent and presentable, I feel 100 times better about myself.
3. Stop with the negative comments (thinking and saying them) about myself.  I think a lot of people are familiar with this, I know I get on people when I hear them say things about themselves, but I never do it for me.  I need to not be so hard on myself.  Odds are, whatever I'm criticizing about my body isn't actually as bad as I think it is.

8 Weeks: Week Two - Fitness

I'm a little late with this because I was traveling all Sunday evening and then running on very little sleep yesterday while unloading my truck, another truck, and a small trailer full of things from Kentucky.  I've been a whirlwind of steam cleaning everything that is stationary, washing every pot, pan, & dish, and organizing all our stuff.  I really did give away, donate, or throw out so many clothes and other miscellaneous items but it feels like I still have entirely too many things.

But anyway -- this week the goals are related to FITNESS!  Oi vey!  Oh how fitness and I loathe each other most days.  I suppose it is a good thing that I must make some fitness goals this week!  I accomplished all my goals last week, too -- look at me go.

So here goes:

1.  Walk Rory outside everyday.  There are some interesting roads around our house and I need to get out and explore.  Exercise while I learn my way around, plus the pup could use some exercise too!
2. Buy a new yoga mat and look into yoga classes in my new town!  Someone told me there was an excellent instructor in town so I definitely want to check that out so I can get back into yoga and incorporate it into my life again.
3. Stop drinking Diet Coke/Pepsi at least for the week and definitely before noon.  It's so gross when I think about it.  I need to stick to water, coffee, yerba mate, and green tea.  Hopefully this goal will translate to stop drinking soda all together, but I'll tackle that longterm goal as it comes.

****

In other news--  I've had a most fortunate experience moving thus far.  The universe has been very good to Mister and me to say the least.  Nothing but good signs everywhere letting us know that we are definitely making the right decision.  I hope we continue to be this fortunate -- we have been so grateful for our luck so far!

Summer Goals 2011.

With my 8 Weeks: Blogging post, I said I would sit down and make some goals for this summer.  I'd like to note that I've been commenting a bit more AND I added blogs to my Reading Material page already!  I'm on track.  Kind of.

So here goes -- SUMMER GOALS:

• Work with Mister to find a permanent place to live at the end of summer.  Our house right now is temporary.   At least we think.  Unless we just completely fall in love with it and don't mind the country life -- it is pretty darn awesome.
• Volunteer.  So far there is one program that I really want to volunteer for and I even told Mister about it when we first drove by the place -- then yesterday when I moseyed on in to our tiny town and went into the General Store I found a flyer asking for volunteers!  It was fate.  I need to call the contact person and put myself on the list to work -- the place is also within walking distance from our house... we live in the middle of nowhere, so that's saying something!
• Make new friends.  I feel so lame when I say this kind of.  But I live 7 hours away from the greatest friends on the planet now, so I need to make new friends but keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold.  ;)  Any other twentysomethings intimidated by the idea of making new friends?  It feels more like dating when you're trying to make friends after college.  Should I ask to hang out first or wait?  When do we exchange numbers?  How soon are nicknames appropriate?  Ha... it's scary, I'm tellin ya!
• Create (I'm talking spreadsheets and files on the comp -- complete organization) budgets for us and STICK TO THEM.  We've been pretty darn good with saving money for a while now, we just need to continue to do so.
• Play the piano daily.  I want to discipline myself to learn more songs.  I've been playing it a lot here, but I'm still slower on the learning of songs than I'd like.  
• Cook a heavy majority of the week's meals.  This goal should be easy to stick to since there is literally no fast food within a close distance in our tiny town - and trips to the co-op or grocery store are still kind of big deals.  We are forced to eat well.  There is no junk in the house and I've had to settle my food cravings with mandarins and pickles for snacks instead of an unhealthier alternative I used to turn to (and if I'm honest, I've been grumpy about it).  And I only say majority because we might go out to a local restaurant once a week, or Mister will cook, or we will have leftovers.  Right now I feel like housewife would be proud of me for all the home meals!
• Read at least 5 new books.  I have a horrible habit of reading a new one, then reading a dozen "comfort" books that I've read thousands of times.  So I need to read NEW books and not old favorites.
• Write letters.  I'd like to start sending hand-written letters to my friends since I now live so far away.  Even if they don't have the time or don't want to respond in the same way, I still want to do that to keep in touch with them. 
• Find a job.  Funemployment has to end sometime, doesn't it?  Oh how I will miss these sweet days of having no rigid schedule.  I thought, given my history of OVERworking, that I would hate not having a job, feel antsy, get bored, etc.  How would I fill up my day?!  But so far I've found my days go by so much quicker while I'm doing things that benefit us or something I enjoy.   It's amazing how fast the day goes when you aren't dreading what you're doing.  So I should add - find a job I don't dread.  

That's all I can think of for now!  I'm sure I'll come up with more, but I'm also trying really hard to set realistic goals for myself and not go overboard with idealizing goal-making.  We shall see.

What are YOUR goals for the summer?!

why my housewife rules (and your's drools?).

1.  She cooks me supper on the regular.

2.  She freezes leftovers for meals later in the week and refrigerates individual servings for lunch the next day.

3.  When I pack my lunch for work, she writes cute notes on the napkin and slips it in as a surprise.

Other reasons:  she's pretty, she's influenced me to eat better & exercise (though I still haven't really got on her level for either - especially the exercise), she's smart, she laughs at my jokes, she asks how my day was, she wishes me a good day before I leave for work, she takes care of my animals if I can't be there, she keeps "mamaw" hours (this means we go to bed SUPER early), and did I mention that she feeds me?  Yeah - she feeds me... biggest reason!

wknd.

It's almost the weekend.  Here are my thoughts.

• excited for the shoestring budget road-trip with mister to the land of our future.
• lookin at livin' quarters to call our own in the land of our future is going to be fun.
• seeing a lovely little band for the third time of my life will be so very fantastic that i will probably spend saturday gasping and sighing a lot and my face will be plastered with a ridiculous grin.
• linda always says "if money can fix your problems, then you don't have any problems."  i'm starting to understand the wisdom in this.  this mantra of hers is speaking to me this week when money has got me down.  trying to be positive.
• being positive is made so much easier with mister's encouraging words.
• everyone makes mistakes.  everyone has flaws.  everyone is going through trials and tribulations in their lives.  
• it gets me weak that The Justin Bieber Experience was on glee this week. 
• i'm not a fan of the biebs.  i don't hate him, i'm just indifferent.
• mister & i fight over who gets to play angry birds on my iphone.  it was started this past weekend when we went to visit my sick aunt that had that game on her ipad.  we started to play, became addicted, then my aunt got mad because mister & i surpassed her level and she took the ipad away from us.  i dl'ed it on suri cruise (my iphone), but it's not the same as on an ipad.  we still fight over who gets to play though.
• the longest bullet in my list is about some dumb game.
• modern family is probably the show that i most relate to in life. 

THE END.

(you're welcome)

{IMAGE VIA WEHEARTIT}