Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Facts

the chiffon diary
 
 
 
Today, through my boredom at work, I stumbled across Nicholl at The Chiffon Diary.  She does a post called "The Fact is" and I wanted to partake in the fun!
 
  • Fact: This morning when I left for work, there was frost on the ground.  No bueno.  Whoever invented garages, you're a genius my friend.  Here's to my first winter of not having to scrape my windows :)
  • Fact: These 2 have my heart.  The whole thing.  Last night, as I was trying to fall asleep, I looked over at my two sleeping beauties and was overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude.  Words cant express how lucky I feel to be able to call them mine.
  • Fact: Nursing school has totally gotten the best of me.  I am totally and completely burnt out.  Finals are next week and I am sooo excited to put these classes behind me!
  • Fact: The hubs and I made a deal: for every A I get, we get to go an a date, my choice.  Welp, an 89% is failing.  I know, I know!  Can you see how I'd feel burnt out?! So the jokes on him- looks like I'll be going on 2 dates in the  near future!
  • Fact: I bought the Taylor Swift cd the day it came out and it has been playing nonstop in my car since then.  Don't judge, its good
  • Fact: I'm obsessed with this tea.  Love it.  Try it, I dare you





 
  • Fact: It's Halloween!  I'm convinced I have the cutest Tigger ever.  As soon as I'm done with clinicals today, I'm picking him up from daycare and our night o' fun begins!  First, were gonna stop by the nursing home so I can show him off to all my new friends and then were gonna make our way around the neighborhood.  Our furry friend Zeus doesn't have a costume but I'll still let him come.  The photo is from Zoo Boo last Saturday.  It was an event held at the zoo where you paid to get in and walked around to various vendors for candy.  Sadly, none of the animals were out and I felt like it was a total waste of money.  There was however, a life-sized Elmo and that made little man's day.  So I guess it was worth every penny
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Seeking a Higher Power

One thing that has always seemed a mystery to me is going to church.  Growing up, my family never went.  Unlike most of my peers, I never attended Sunday school or got confirmed.  The older I got, the more insecure I felt.  I hated when my friends were going through confirmation because they would talk about it and I would do the whole smile and nod thing, having absolutely no idea what they were talking about.  I feel so uneducated and misinformed when it comes to church and God in general.
After my son was born, I felt like I was constantly, mainly by my husband's mother, being asked when he was going to get baptised.  I seriously put it off for as long as possible.  Not because I didn't want him baptised, but because I didn't even know where to begin.  Would I just call a church?  What if they asked a lot of questions?  One thing that was a major factor in my nervousness is that I was raised "Catholic".  In my eyes (and this is only my opinion, feel free to disagree), Catholic is the most strict religion.  I feel as though there is so much to remember and so many hoops to jump through that I got super overwhelmed every time I even thought about it.
My husband's grandparents attend a Methodist church in town and we had gone with them a couple of times to church.  One day, I went onto their website and emailed someone about getting Jett baptised.  She was so helpful and approachable that it almost felt like I was talking to a good friend.  We went through with getting him baptized and try to attend church as often as possible.  We don't make it every Sunday, but we do our best to get there. 
Every Wednesday, Lexy (the girl I originally talked to) sends out emails with information about the church.  Last week, in her email, it said something about classes coming up for new members if anyone was interested.  Right away, I knew this was something I wanted to do.  I wasn't sure how my husband would feel about it though.  Actually, I knew he wouldn't want to do it.  However, without giving him the time to talk me out of it, I replied to her email and said that we will be there.  There are 3 classes, about an hour and a half each.  I really hope that my hubby will be coming with me but if not, I am still going to do it on my own. 
So, I am excited to say that for the first time, at the age of 24, I am going to be a member of a church!  What does being a member all entail?  Does it require you to do things?  If so, what?  How often?  Are you required to 'donate' or pay money?  I have no answers to these questions.  However, I cant wait to find out. 

Monday, October 15, 2012

New Hair

For a very long time, I've been wanting to cut my hair short.  First, I was waiting to do it after my wedding.  However, that was 6 months ago.  I scoured Pinterest looking for inspiration but its so hard for me to look at pictures of someone else and imagine how their hairstyle would look on me.  Also, I hate taking a picture into a stylist with the hopes of leaving looking like it, because it never happens and then disappointment sets in.  Unless you have the exact same hair texture and color, its going to look different.  And, who wants to look exactly like someone else?! I sure don't!
Last Tuesday, I had a hair appointment.  I seriously go to the best hair stylist ever.  I love that I finally found someone that I have so much confidence in.  It sounds silly, but hair is such an important component in the way we look that its scary to completely change it!  Yes, I know that hair grows back, but that can take a long time!
I told Brittany that I wanted my hair just past my shoulders, able to be put into a ponytail, and lots of layers.  I also told her I wanted to dye it dark brown, close to my natural color. 
 Originally, I wanted to dye my hair myself.  After posting about it on facebook though, my friends convinced me out of it this time.  One of my gal pals that is a hair stylist informed me that because my highlights were so light, there was a possibility that they would turn green.  Gross.  So, I left it up to Brittany to give me brown hair, not green.  Dying hair is so expensive and I'm looking for ways to save money now that I'm not only a college student, but also a mother.  Lately it seems like my money is spent on bills and that's it.  Therefore, the task of keeping up highlights just isn't an option for me anymore.  Once I'm done with school and working, I would like to go back to them, I just need a cheaper option for right now. 
My hair had to be dyed a little darker than I had hoped but Brittany assured me that this is only temporary.  She said it needed to be darker since its so light, it will fade real bad in about a week.  Honestly, I cant wait for that fading to happen.  From now on I'm going to dye my hair myself, now that its all one uniform color. 
Honestly, I was terrified to chop my hair.  I thought about it all day, playing that game in mind where 2 voices in my head talk about it back and forth.  I knew that before I thought about it too much , my hair needed to be cut.  For the record, I love it.  Its such a nice change and I will definitely appreciate the fact that it will take way less time to style.
I do look quite different though.  At first, I felt like I was a spy in hiding or something.  I went to pick my son up from daycare that day and he gave me the strangest look, it was so cute.  You could tell he was like "you sound like my mommy but you don't look like her!"
Anyways, I'm rambling.  Time for some pictures:

Friday, October 12, 2012

If You Really Knew Me

My husbands aunt is going through a divorce and has been looking for a new place to live.  Right now she is torn between a house and an apartment, both having their pros and cons in her mind.  As we were talking, I got to thinking how I could never live in a house all by myself.  I would be terrified!!  I have an irrational fear of being home alone.  When I was younger and we lived in Minneapolis, we didn't live in the best neighborhood.  Our house was broken into several times and once, our garage was started on fire.  We moved to a suburb when I was in the fifth grade but I think this is the reason I'm so scared: I've witnessed first hand how cruel people can be in the world.  I am so afraid that someone will come into my house and I wont be able to protect myself.  I know its quite silly that an almost 25 year old is so scared of this, but its true!  I absolutely hate being home alone.  My husband plays darts on Tuesday nights and I dread those nights when he wont be home for a couple hours.  (side note: I'm fine being home alone during the day, I love it actually.  Its just the night that I don't like, when my imagination gets the best of me).  When we moved into our house, my brother-in-law moved into our basement.  At first, I wasn't sure I would enjoy sharing my house and once again, have a 'roommate' like I did in college.  Turns out, I love it because I don't get so freaked out knowing there is someone else home with me.  Finally, my husband can go to darts or out with his friends without my constant texting wondering when he will be home.
So there is a little fun fact for ya!  Here's a couple more:

If you really knew me:
- You would know that I would eat candy all day long if I could
-That I love school
-That I wish I could be a stay-at-home mom (even though I know I would be bored out of mind after a month)
-I love pizza.  And broccoli, but my hubby hates broccoli so I rarely get to eat it
-As I've gotten older, I've noticed I have less friends, but the ones in my life are great friends.  I no longer feel the need to be surrounded by a group of people that I only pretend to like
-My favorite thing to do on the weekends is go to garage sales with my little man- we always find the best treasures!
-A lot of people don't understand how I can handle being a mother, wife, nursing student, and work 2 jobs, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I know what I want in life and I also know that I will need to put in some hard work to get those things
-I wish I had more time to explore a creative outlet
-I could spend hours on Pinterest
-I'm really interested in fashion and makeup.  Now if only I could learn to wake up to my alarm clock instead of hitting snooze 5 times, my appearance would show that
-I'm scheduled to work 14 hours today.. yikes

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Workin on my Fitness

Happy Wednesday to you :)
After my wedding (almost 6 months ago) I went on a workout hiatus.  Pretty much stopped working out completely.  It's bad.  I just no longer have any motivation!!
Everyday, I tell myself tomorrow will be the day I'll start working out, but it never happened.  Last week, as I was getting dressed, I reached my breaking point.  I could barely button my jeans!  (I can hardly believe I'm confessing this to the world!)
I have some friends who are BeachBody trainers and have purchased some of their programs.  I really enjoyed Brazilian Butt Lift but to be honest, my butt is not the part of my body that needs to be targeted.  I got TurboFire as a gift from my husband last mother's day.  This program is not cheap.  At all.  But all my friends had been raving about how awesome it is and that the time goes by so fast because you actually enjoy doing the workout.  I tried it once and hated it.  I tried it again last week, and still hated it.  My friend told me I just needed to keep doing it and I would get the hang of it.  Feeling discouraged, I took her advice.  I wanted soo badly to like this.  Unfortunately, I still hate it.  I should back up a step and explain why I hate it:  I cant keep up.  It is way too "dance-y" for me.  In high school, I was always into sports, but I was never into girly things like dancing.  Frankly, I have no rhythm and no matter how hard I try, my body wont move like its supposed to!  So here I would be, standing in front my TV, watching the moves, but unable to do them myself.  I would finally figure it out, and the girl would be onto something else.  For me, this was soo frustrating!!
I had a revelation the other day.  I realized why I ha vent been working out: I don't like BeachBody programs. and that's okay!  So many people love them, but surely I'm not the first person to admit that I hate them.  There are so many girls in this town that are doing them and promoting them though, that I felt like I had to do them.  I forgot that there are a million other ways to exercise.  I took my dislike for these programs and turned it into a dislike for working out. 
I always have a hard time knowing what exactly to do for exercise and like to have someone to lead me, which is why I chose to go with TV programs in the first place.  I've printed out a couple different workouts online and will be trying those. 
My dear friend, Emily, works at PureBarre and I want soo badly to try that.  I am so eager to jump on bandwagons!  I am the person infomercials are targeted at: talk about something for 10 minutes and you've got me hooked, I want it!  I'm so hesitant to buy a DVD though because I don't want it to be a waste of money like TurboFire was. 
I've listed my TurboFire on EBay and told myself once it sells, I can buy something else with the money.  Until then, I'll continue with my printouts.  I feel like at least I'm on the right track now though because it doesn't really matter what you're doing as long as you're moving!!

Friday, October 5, 2012

The Little Things

The other night at work (yes, I work nights now.  Maybe I need to do a little life update?) I was chatting with my new friend Tammy and she made me listen to this new Taylor Swift song, Ronan.  After the first 30 seconds, I wanted to stop it.  Not that it wasn't good, but because I felt like I could start crying and that's bad news for everyone.  I'm not a pretty cryer.  At all.  I save that for when I'm alone.  Anyways, I didn't want to be rude so I listened to the entire song.  If you've never heard it, go to youtube, now.  Its the saddest song I've ever heard about a little boy with cancer that she wrote for Stand Up to Cancer.  Something about that song compelled me.  I couldn't stop thinking about it and my heart just ached for the mother of that sweet boy.  I cannot even begin to imagine what that would feel like to have to go through and I pray my loved ones will never have to go through such a thing. 
When I got home from work, I still couldn't stop thinking about it.  I googled his name and came across a NY Times article and through that, learned that his mom had written a blog of the entire experience.  Taylor had followed the blog and with the mother's permission, had used many of her words in the song.  So naturally, I had to check out this blog.  I sat and read probably 50 of the entries.  I just couldn't tear myself away.  Finally, at 2 in the morning with tears streaming down my cheeks, I decided it was time to go to bed. 
That was almost a week ago, and I still cant stop thinking about it.  If I had the finances, I would most definitely contribute to children's cancer.  However, I don't.  Maybe someday I will :)
Anyways, while reading her story, I felt compelled to grab my baby and just hold him tight in my arms.  He is the light of my life and I cant even fathom him being taken from me. 
Yesterday, I got done with school at noon and picked up Jett.  I had my day planned out perfectly.  He was going to take a nap and I was going to get all my cleaning done and then we were going to walk to the park where he and Zeus would play while I did the rest of my homework.  We got home and I laid him in his crib and he didn't even make a peep.  Normally, nap time is an awful experience in the Engen house because he will cry and scream and my heart just breaks.  I have this mental debate each time: 'should I go get him?  No, he needs to sleep, he will stop eventually.  Is something wrong with him?  No, he knows his mama is a softy and will come take him out.'
I did a little victory dance and thought this was too good to be true.  I then got started making lunch for my hubby and then he came home and we sat at the table, just the two of us.  This is something that never happens in our lives anymore, and it was so nice, except for the fact that it wasn't long enough.  He left and I begun to do the dishes when all of a sudden I heard a piercing scream.  My little man was up, he was done with nap time.  A little annoyed because it had only been 45 minutes, I went into his room.  I scooped him into my arms and the tears instantly stopped.  It amazes me how the second I hold him, he always stops crying.  This is probably the best feeling in the world as a mom, knowing how much your baby needs you.  We sat on the couch for a little bit, him eating a granola bar, watching cartoons on TV.  Knowing that I had a long to do list, this was killing me.  Every time I tried to set him down, he would scream and cry and want to be held.  We went through this a couple of times and finally I realized, he wasn't going to watch TV on his own.  We then moved to the floor.  Me sitting cross-legged with him in the middle, playing with toys.  After a couple of minutes I set him on the floor in front of me.  He was fine.  I was behind him, he couldn't even see me so if I got up, he wouldn't even notice, right? wrong.  I slowly stood and crept into the kitchen.  I didn't even make it to the sink before he was crying again.  How did he even notice I wasn't there anymore?!
I reluctantly came back into the room and picked him up.  We were standing by the window and outside, he could see all the trucks fixing our road.  he pointed and giggled an proceeded to talk his jibberish.  He was clearly fascinated by these trucks.  We stood there and watched the trucks for a good half hour.  In the midst of all this, my annoyance went away.  Yes, I had a pile of dishes to do and an even bigger heap of laundry.  Yes, I had a lot of homework that I needed to catch up on.  But the dishes, laundry, and homework would all still be there.  A little boy who wants nothing more than to hang out with his mama, will not.  There will come a day when he thinks I'm dumb and hes too cool for me.  I dread when that day comes.  For now, I just need to slow down and be grateful for the little things.  I didn't accomplish anything on my to do list.  I did, however, get to spend the day with my baby and that makes me smile.
Jersey Shore started last night, a show my husband and I always watch together.  After Jett went to bed though, instead of sitting my butt on the couch and watching, I finished my to do list.  After all, Jett is way more important than the people on Jersey Shore.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Zeus


This cute little guy is mine.  And I am seriously in love with him.  We've never met.  I can, however, assure you that him and Jett will be BFF.  Jett loves dogs and I am so excited that he will finally get to have his own.  I cant wait to see the look on Jett's when they meet.  We get to pick him up tonight.  7:30 to be exact.  We are going to have an extremely busy night.  We have a wedding tonight at 5:00 and right after the wedding we will need to be on our way for this little guy because he is an hour and a half away.  I can barely contain my excitement.


Another fun thing for the weekend- I am going golfing with my hubby on Sunday.  We have never gone golfing together and I haven't been golfing in at least 2 years.  This will be interesting to say the least.  I just hope he has enough patience to watch me whiff the ball a time or 20.  I am sure I will have pictures to follow :)


Have a fabulous weekend!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

MIA

I knew I hadn't posted in awhile but holy cow- its been almost a month!  Time has been getting away from me lately.  There is too much fun to be had in the summer.  Since I last posted, my hubby and I bought a house.  And I'm in love.  I can not wait until we get to move!  I've got all sorts of colors and decorations dancing in my head and I cant wait to do it all!


Here she is in all her glory- isn't she a beauty?!  It is a rather old house which slightly scared me at the beginning but the previous owners took extremely good care of it and it has plenty of updates.  Also, I love old houses for all of their charm.  I cant even explain how gorgeous the crystal door handles are in each room.  And there is seriously so many cupboards.  I will no longer have the issue of no room to store anything.  The master bedroom?  Three closets!! If that isn't enough- one wall is lined with built-in cabinets!  No longer will I need to store seasonal clothes at my moms house.  I think shes more happy about this than I am!

I cant wait to be able to enjoy my morning coffee in this sunny little nook.  I'm telling y'all, everything about this house screams perfection in my eyes.  I am beyond excited to move into it and so proud that my hubby and I get to call it our own.  August 15 (our closing date) cant get here fast enough!







Another thing that's happened since I last posted: Jett and I flew to Montana to celebrate my sister's birthday with her.  I cant even tell you the last time I got to be with her on her birthday so it really meant a lot to me to be able to spend this time with her.  We did all sorts of fun things- got our nose pierced, went horseback riding, had a night on the town, and got Brazilian blowouts.  I'm telling ya, if you have hair like mine (thick, frizzy, wavy) a Brazilian blowout is highly, highly recommended.  The price scared me away at first but seriously- it is worth it!!








Jett taking in the view from an airplane window for the first time
Sissy and I out on the townSeriously- how can you not be obsessed with this boy?!




One last thing that's happened this summer: Basilica Block Party.  In Minneapolis, one of the radio stations puts on an outdoor concert each summer to benefit that Basilica Catholic church.  This year, the main act was OAR and my fabulous mom was able to get us free tickets!!  My family has gone to this every year but this was the first time for my husband and I.  We had so much fun and will definitely plan on attending again next year.


Okay, I promise- last bit of information.  This morning, I finally grew some balls and told my boss I'm going back to school.  I was so nervous about doing it but now I feel like I have such a big weight lifted off my shoulders and I am soo glad I did it.  School starts August 22 and I seriously cant wait.  My family and I will have such big changes in the month of August, it needs to get here faster!  One thing that really irritated me though was my boss asked about how many hours I thought I would be able to still work (I told him I would like to still work something out part time) and he said I need to work at least 30 hours a week.  He said I would be expected to put in hours after-hours and maybe a couple of hours on the weekends.  Now, I have no problem doing that.  But then, he said he expects my job to be my top priority.  I'm sorry but if I'm paying all this money to go to school, I'm going to give it my all.  Not to mention the fact that I have a family that I need to spend time with.  So maybe working here part time wont work out after all.  Only time will tell I guess.  I just feel like its so important for me to keep my priorities in order and this job for sure wont come before school and definitely wont come before my husband and son.  Okay, I better stop before I get myself angry.

I could keep going on and on I have so much to share.  I guess that's what I get for taking a 3 week hiatus ;)

Until next time, which I promise will be sooner than 3 weeks, have a fabulous day




Thursday, June 21, 2012

Highlights of summer










Here's a little update of our summer so far!
Jett loves playing outside!  He literally cries when its time to go in and will just stand at the door looking out the screen door.  He got a new bubble toy from his auntie for his birthday and its one of his favorites. I love how fascinated he is with everyday things and love to watch him discover each day.
I applied self-tanner and minus some areas by my toes, it doesn't look so bad!  Hooray for not being pasty!  And not increasing my risk for skin cancer :)  I used the L'Oreal Paris Sublime Bronze Luminous Bronzer and am seriously IN LOVE!  It gives me the perfect amount of tan and leaves me skin shimmery without looking like I just spilled a bottle of glitter all over me.  I would highly recommend this product.  I bought it at Walgreen's for under $10 and I believe it can also be found at Target, Walmart, etc
Matt stayed home last Friday night with Jett and I was able to go out with my dear friend Britta.  We always have so much fun together and it was nice to go out to the bars since I haven't been there in awhile.  It definitely made me feel old though- and that isn't a feeling I get very often.  I was hungover for about two days afterwards.. so maybe I really am old.
I'm excited to announce my sister and I have opened our very own Etsy shop!  Were so excited about it and hope to be successful in selling our crafts.  Check it out: HERE (http://www.etsy.com/shop/FlutterSisters?ref=ss_profile)
Recently, I bought a pair of True Religion jeans off Ebay.  It seemed like such a great deal that I couldn't pass them up.  They arrived on Monday and to my disappointment, they are way too long.  At first, I was super disappointed.  This is not the first (or second) time I've bought something off Ebay and it didn't fit right.  Its so disappointing because then you cant return it!  I hate getting jeans hemmed because its expensive and I think the bottom looks funny then-  I like the original hem.  While browsing the Internet yesterday at work, I found a tutorial on how to hem jeans and keep the original hem! FOUND HERE  It requires the use of a sewing machine (which I don't have but if someone would like to donate one I would be forever grateful).  However, I did mine by hand.  I did this on a pair of American Eagle jeans that I've had for forever.  They're way too long so I rarely wear them so I figured if I ruined them, no biggy, but if it worked, they could re-enter my wardrobe!  I followed most of her instructions with a few of my own ideas here and there.  I decided to do this at 9:00 at night which probably wasn't my best idea.  I was sitting on my bed and didn't have any pins so instead I folded the jeans and used my hair straightener to iron the fold to get it stay well.  (The epitome of lazy, I'm aware).  I also didn't want to try them on, so I decided an inch and a half sounded good to me.  I didn't take into consider that they were folded so that measurement would be doubled.  Whoopsie.  They are a tad short but not bad- they will be good to wear with either flip flops or winter boots.  It took about half an hour to do and I did it while chatting to my brother on the phone.  It would've been faster if it had my full attention (or if I had a sewing machine of course).  Overall, I'm satisfied with the way it turned out and am ready to try it out on my new True Religion jeans.  Wish me luck and I'll post an update later :)

Have a fabulous day :)

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

What I Made Monday- Lemon Shrimp

I feel like I'm always making very similar foods lately.  It seems as though everything consists of either chicken or noodles, and often a combination of the two.  Having recently discovered my love for shrimp, I thought I would be adventurous and try out a shrimp recipe.  I saw something on Pinterest and decided to use that as the base to my meal.  When making dinner, I don't usually like to follow the recipe exactly- I like to add a few of my own ingredients. 
I got home from work Monday night ready to make my new meal.  However, I had forgotten to put the shrimp in the refrigerator so it was still frozen.  Doing what I do with all frozen meat, I started to put it into the microwave.  Something possessed me to read the bag and it said to thaw frozen shrimp, it should be placed in a bowl of cold water.  Who knew?  Certainly not this girl!  Thank goodness for directions.  Into a bowl of water my shrimp went.  I was surprised at the short amount of time it took for them thaw out!
My shrimp thawing out

While I was waiting for my shrimp to thaw out, I put a little bit of butter into a baking pan and put it into the oven to melt.  While that was melting, I sliced up a lemon.  I then put the shrimp into the pan and added the lemon slices.  I didn't think I had enough butter because it wasn't covering the bottom of the pan so I added a couple more scoops of butter (real healthy, I know).  I then sprinkled with the dish with Italian seasoning, garlic salt, pepper, and a lemon herb spice I found in my cupboard that I didn't realize I even owned.  I don't have measurements for the spices/herbs because I just sprinkled as desired.  I love using different spices in my recipes but you will notice that I rarely use an actual measurement.  
Before it went into the oven

I then stuck my pan into the oven, set at 350 for 15 minutes.  I forgot to take a picture of my end result (I really need to get better at that!) but it was delicious.  I would definitely make this again.  However, I didn't squeeze my lemons and I feel like that would've given it such a better lemon flavor.  I guess I'll have to try that next time- and take a final photo!

Enjoy!







Tuesday, June 19, 2012

June Birchbox

Yesterday was a very long day.  I got home from work exhausted and had barely enough time to get out the door to be on time for Jett's one year pictures.  He wouldn't really cooperate and I have a feeling we didn't get too many good shots.  As soon as we were done with the pictures we had a few errands to run and then went to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.  The hostess had given us a kids menu with crayons and while Jett has never really played with crayons before, I didn't have any toys to keep him occupied so we decided to try them out.  Of course, he tried eating them.  As I was trying to fish the tip of the red crayon out of his mouth, our waitress came over to take our order.  I was already feeling kind of flustered since I hadn't had time to look at the menu to decide what I wanted, but little did I know, my dining experience was about to get worse.  With my pointer finger in his mouth, Jett bit down.  HARD.  It took every bit of me not to scream in the middle of the restaurant.  I yanked my finger out and looked down to find it covered in blood.  Yes, he bit me so hard that he drew blood.  And a lot of it at that.  Needless to say, I was ready to get home, crawl under my covers, and sleep for a long time. 
To my surprise though, this lovely pink box was waiting for me on our kitchen table: my June Birchbox!  Even though I was so exhausted, I couldn't go to bed without checking out all my goodies!!  I would say that this birchbox was way better than the first one I got.  After the first one, I contemplated cancelling my birchbox but this erased all those thoughts from my brain. 
This months theme was Jet Setter, which is perfect since I'm going on vacation next week!  Its compiled of 5 items that that will
outlast your next long-haul flight
"My samples this month were:

Comodynes Self-Tanning Intensive

Description:
"This Spanish brand’s genius towelettes are designed to give you uniform all-over color. A bestseller in Europe, they landed on our shores just in time for bikini season. These single-use wipes deliver a natural tan on face and body that’s more intensely bronze than the brand’s regular self tanners. Even so, the formula adjusts to your skin tone, so you don’t have to worry about ending up with an un-matching tan"

My Review:
I really liked these!  I have extremely fair skin that doesn't tan very well.  I've tried spray tans, which I really like, but they are just so dang expensive.  I had been thinking about purchasing a self tanner recently so I was so excited when I saw this!  They didn't leave me looking orange and gave me a natural, streak free tan.  I would definitely purchase these in the future.  I did see that they are cheaper on Amazon, FYI.

Stila One Step Bronze

Description:
"The three-in-one primer, bronzer, and skin perfector addresses our three main concerns: oversized pores, unevenness, and lackluster skintone. Made with a triple helix of bronzing, highlighting, and illuminating pigments, the creamy formula has a mousse-like consistency, and is subtly laced with coppery shimmer"

My Review:
I couldn't believe the size of this baby!  It is not a sample, its the full-size product!  I tried this once, and am not really sure how I feel about it.  It definitely contains a lot of bronzer- almost too much for my preference.  I felt that it made my face look a little orange and didn't blend very well on my neck.  However, I'm not ready to completely write it off- I think it will look much better once I start to get a nice summer tan (or use self-tanner in my case)

Wonderstruck by Taylor Swift
(sorry my picture is upside down for some reason)

Description:
"Eclectic and traditional with whimsical flair, every element of the brand is authentically Taylor."

My Review:
I was excited to finally smell this perfume, being I'm a huge T Swift fan.  I didn't love it, didn't hate it.  In my opinion, it didn't really stand out to me so I don't think I would actually purchase this.



The Balm Cosmetics Stainiac

Description:
"This two-in-one lip and cheek stain gives us a natural, understated flush and helps us get out the door faster. The gel formula looks dark in the tube but delivers a sheer tint."

My Review:
I liked that this went on a lot lighter than it appeared in the tube.  I really liked it on my lips and would actually consider buying it.  I seem to have a preference for stains over lipsticks because I like that they seem to last a lot longer.  It says it can be used on cheeks as well.  I didn't try it on my cheeks and don't think that I will.  My cheeks are naturally flushed and I'm always trying to minimize that. 

peanut Butter Cookie Luna Bar

Description:
 Each [bar] has just under 200 calories and is full of the nutrients your body needs, including calcium, folic acid, iron and vitamin D.

My Review:
While I've never had this particular flavor, I've had Luna bars before and they're really tasty!  I plan to save this little treat for my flight next week :)






Thursday, June 14, 2012

30x30

Kate, over at the Small Things Blog as well as her sister, Lauren, at From My Grey Desk are doing this thing called the 30x30 challenge.  What it is: you choose 30 pieces out of your wardrobe and thats all you can wear for a whole MONTH.  At first I thought it seemed pretty simple to do.  Then I realized they were including shoes and jewelry in their count of 30.  The point of this is to force yourself to pair things together and make new outfit combinations out of the clothes that you already own.  Sounds kinda fun, huh?  I want to try to do it but I'm kind of boring.  I've worn the same pair of flip flops on my feet everyday for the past month.  When I dont need to dress up for work and most of my coworkers care more about cows than clothes, its hard to do.  Its so easy for me to get in a slump and go to work with no make up and my hair up in a messy bun.  So, my 30x30 will be a little different.  I am going to, for the next 30 days, actually do my hair and makeup and look presentable.  You're probably reading this thinking 'what the hell have you turned into?  I do that everyday!' I know, I know, its bad!  So this will be my motivation.  And to keep me on track, I will take a picture of myself each day.  This weekend I'll pick out my 30 pieces and start on Monday. 
Also, while I'm at it, I'm not going to spend any money on clothes until August.  That way, if I see something I have to have, I'll have to wait awhile to get it and if I still want it by then, I must really want it.  I tend to be an impulse shopper so hopefully this will help me a lot.  I get really bored at work so I start to online shop.  (But, in my defense, I never ever pay full price for things.  It must be on sale at some level.)  So, throughout my challenge, I'll have to find other websites to occupy my time.  Suggestions of blogs to read are greatly appreciated :)
Have a fabulous day!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Birthdays, Baptism, and busy-ness

I haven't posted in over a week but my life has been pretty crazy to say the least.  Last Wednesday, my peanut turned one.  Yes, you read that right, he's one!  Where the hell does the time go?! I swear the little guy was just in my tummy yesterday. 
We spent his day going on all sorts of adventures.  Matt picked him up from daycare around noon and met me back at our house.  We went and ate at Matt's favorite place- Burritos on Broadway.  After that, Jett fell asleep.  We had planned to take him to the zoo but wanted to wait until after he woke up so we drove around for awhile and ended up at our friend Brian's house.  Brian lives on a lake so Jett slept in the shade, Matt fished, and I worked on my tan (or lack thereof).  After Matt caught a fish, we decided it was way too hot for that.  As we were loading Jett into Matt's truck, he finally woke up from his  nap, so off to the zoo we went.  And he hated it.  I mean really hated it.  We looked at fish in a tank- he screamed and cried.  They have peacocks walking around the grounds of the zoo and every time one came into sight, he would scream and cry.  We made our way over to the petting zoo and he screamed and cried.  He didn't want to sit in his stroller, he wanted to be held.  Normally, that wouldn't bother me but it was hot.  Very hot.  I was wet with a mixture of both of our sweat.  We decided it was best that we just went home.  Matt and I had bought him a power wheels car for his birthday so we let him open that.  Matt put it together for him and to my shock, he understood how to make it go!  Matt showed him to push them button and after that, he didn't need our help- he was ready to cruise!  So he rode that across the lawn for quite some time.  To end our day of fun, we went to Pizza Ranch, Jett's favorite place to eat.  After stuffing his face with chicken and pizza, we made our way home for the night.  By that point, he was so tuckered out and ready for bed.. and he slept like 'a baby'.
On Saturday, we had a birthday party at the park.  The forecast was 90 so we packed our swimsuits and towels and planned for a day in the sun.  However, it was extremely windy so it didn't feel that warm.  I had also purchased a bunch of cute decorations but, because of the wind, we weren't able to use them.  Hopefully I'll eventually have another boy so they can be used ;)  With the water being cold, we didn't end up going swimming.  We just sat and socialized with everyone, ate, had cake, then opened presents.  For some reason, Jett wasn't that into the cake.  I couldn't get him to dig in it like I had pictured.  He wanted to use a fork and didn't like getting his fingers messy.  Maybe I shouldn't complain that my son doesn't like to be dirty.  He is still a little too young to understand the concept of opening presents but there were plenty of other kids to help him.  I think some people were a little disappointed that he didn't open the presents himself but if that would've happened, we would've been there all night!  After that, Jett played with his toys and people started filing out. 
We had planned on spending the night camping at the park but around 10, we had a change of plans.  Jett was doing everything in his power to stay awake and we had another long day ahead of us on Sunday so we went back home.  It was nice to actually get a good nights sleep, even if it wasn't for very long.  My mom, being the angel that she is, got up with Jett when he woke up.  Matt and I got to sleep in until 8 and then we had to go back to the campground to get all of our stuff.  Its pretty sad when I consider 8 being able to sleep in!  We didn't have much time to pack up our things because we needed to get home to shower and get ready for church.  We finally go Jett baptized!  Matt's mom had been bugging us a lot that he needed to baptized but the timing just wasn't right.  My sister, Kelly is Jett's godmother so she had to be there for it.  I just couldn't justify making her buy a plane ticket for that and every time she comes for a visit, we always gather in Minnesota.  Obviously, because there is so much more to do there.  Since everyone was coming for his birthday, I figured we might as well just get it over with.  I'm glad we did it but it made for such a long weekend!! I'm still exhausted from all the planning and lack of sleep and my house is a disaster to say the least.
I had planned on writing about the day that Jett was born but this is already getting long so I will have to do that tomorrow
Riding his new toy from mommy and daddy



Feeding momma the cake 


 
Enjoying some new toys









Pooped out from a long weekend!





Have a fabulous day!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

What I Made Monday

Last night, I made the most awesome pizza and I made the recipe myself, which made it even better in my mind.  And it was super easy- took me less than 10 minutes to make!
I have a ton of left over boneless chicken wings in my freezer so I cut those up.  I realize the normal person doesn't have those on hand, so I will explain the recipe as if I'm normal. 

Ingredients:
Pizza crust (either pre-made or homemade.  I used pre-made)
Chicken
Buffalo Sauce
Garlic Olive Oil
Mozzarella Cheese
Bleu Cheese

1.  Preheat the oven according to the directions on the packaging of the crust.  Mine needed to be at 400 but that may vary depending on the brand you buy.
2.  In a saucepan, boil chicken for 15 minutes, until cooked thoroughly.  Once done, remove from pan and shred with two forks it in bite-sized pieces.  Next, coat chicken in Buffalo sauce.  (This is the step I didn't need to do)
3.  Place pizza crust on baking sheet and lightly coat the top with garlic olive oil.  Next, layer buffalo sauce on top of the oil.  I didn't put an exact measurement because it depends on how spicy you want the pizza to be.  If you prefer it to be less spicy, use less buffalo sauce but a tad more olive oil so its not dry.
4.  cover buffalo sauce with Mozzarella cheese, followed by the buffalo chicken pieces.  Sprinkle bleu cheese on top and add a little more mozzarella if desired.
5.  Cook until cheese has melted and crust has begun to turn golden brown.  Mine took about 12 minutes.

Enjoy!

I didn't to take a picture because it looked so good that I couldn't stop my hubby from eating a piece before I could grab my camera.  This would be so much better if I had a photo because I'm such a visual person but you will just have to take my word for it.  This is to die for!  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  Give it a try and let me know what you think :)

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Mint pants

Whats your opinion on colored jeans?? Personally, I have always been a fan of the style, I think they are so cute!  I have been holding out on buying a pair though.  For one reason, I live in Watertown, SD.  Not the most fashionable place on earth.  I don't like to wear crazy clothes because I don't feel like they really fit in around here.  Another reason is because I hate spending my money on fads.  I didn't want to purchase a pair of jeans that I could wear for one season and then they would be out of season- that's just crazy talk to me!
However, they are still around and have been since the fall.  I think its time I purchase a pair.  I had seen a couple of cute pairs on Pinterest, and they were a minty green color.  It was love at first sight.  However, each picture brought me to a link for expensive jeans.  I just cant justify spending a lot of money on these. 
Then, two weekends ago, I was in Target with my hubby and son looking for a birthday card for his grandma.  While waiting in line, I told them I would be right back, I wanted to see if any new jewelry had gone on clearance (like I need new jewelry in the first place.)  I checked out the jewelry for a little while and then made my way back to the check out lanes, only to find them deserted, my husband nowhere in sight.  I figured they must be looking at toys or something so I wandered to the clothes (once again, like I needed more clothes).  And then I saw them, in all their glory- a pair of mint, skinny jeans!! I needed to have those jeans.  I called my husband to let him know I would be in the fitting room.  However, to my horror, they were already in the car waiting for me and wanted me to hurry up and get out there.  How dare they check out and go outside before I'm ready?! I have a pair of earrings I want, I thought.  However, we were already running for the party and I knew I better get my butt outside.
I went back the next day to get these jeans that I had fallen in love with.  I thought I needed a 6 but they only had a 4.  I took them to the dressing room anyways and tried them on.  I was able to get them buttoned and had a little muffin top but they're pretty stretchy so I couldn't tell if they just needed to be worn for an hour and then they would be fine.  The other problem- they were too short.  I never have that problem!  I figured I would just go online and buy them.  I scoured the Target website in search for these jeans and couldn't find them anywhere!  Then, I stumbled across an ad in their 'whats hot now' section.  There my pants were! To my dismay the words available only in stores was written below them. 
Not ready to give up just yet, I texted my sister and had her look at her Target for me.  Unfortunately, the smallest size they had was a 10.
Last night I went to Target to get baby formula and decided I should check my jeans just to see if they got any more in.  They had the size my sister needed but they only had a 6 in a teal color.  I figured I could settle on that and took them to the dressing room.  Once again, they were too short!  I couldn't believe it.  I ran out and grabbed a pair of 8's just to see if maybe they would work better.  Once again, they were too short and these ones were also HUGE in the thighs.  Not gonna work. 
As I was checking out with my sister's pants and the formula I noticed something:  the legs of hers were folded up!  Why didn't I think of that?!  This whole time, I didn't realize that these aren't supposed to be pants, they are cropped jeans!  Now I felt like an idiot.  I needed to leave right away to make it to my hair appointment though. 
Tonight, before my softball game (which I'm hoping gets cancelled because its freezing out and looks like rain) I am going to go back to Target to re-try them on, rolled up this time.  When I was talking to my sister about it last night, she brought up a good point.  A lot of Target pants have the issue we refer to as saggy butt- they stretch out throughout the day and by the end of the day, you look like you're wearing a diaper.  No adult female wants to look like she is wearing a diaper!  She suggested I go down a size and just not wash them very often.  So, now I'm going back to Target in hopes that the size 4 of mint jeans hasn't sold.  Otherwise, I'll have to settle on the teal pair in the 6.

Like I mentioned above, I got my hair done last night.  I'm not sure how I feel about it as its the most blonde my hair has ever been.  I cant tell if I don't like it, or if I just need to get used to it.  I'll let you be the judge:
Please don't pay attention to the fact that I have no makeup on.. I woke up late this morning :/
Shirt: The Limited