MIA but Thankful

Lets be honest, I am obviously not meant to be a blogger. I don't post ever, I get on binges when I post a ton, then I am MIA for days, weeks sometimes months. This is why I wasn't an English major... I don't like to write. It makes me nervous.  Best part? I know this!! I don't try and act like I am a good blogger or that I am motivated to keep up with it.  But you know what I am good at? Being Thankful. I have always been a person that knows I have, and I am thankful for the little things.  Hence... Thanksgiving day... a list of being Thankful 

Top 6 things I am Thankful for

6. My friends. When I went to send my "Happy Thanksgiving" text message today, I said that I would only send it to people I had talked to recently and was already in my text messages... that was almost 14 people. I have some amazing friends that I talk to on a daily basis, as well as people that I may only talk to every once and a while that I love and know are there for me. 

5.  My upbringing. I know that this entails a ton of things. But I was blessed with a mom and dad that wanted me to have things that they didn't have. I got to experience things that people only dream about. 

4. My brother. We have never been the best of friends, but I know my loves me and is always there for me. I hope that one day we can become better friends. 

3.  Blue. My cat. Yes- I am thankful for my cat. I got her in a time when I struggled with who I was, and the things going on around me. She was a therapist during late nights, she was my confidant when I wanted to laugh about dumb things, and when I am sick or crying- she is right there cuddling with me. 

2. My Job. I may not like my job, or really ever want to be there. BUT I am thankful to have a job that is flexible at times and has thought me to become a leader 

1. My Marriage. I was blessed to meet and marry a man that is wonderful to me. If you know me, I never thought I would get married. I never thought I'd find someone who would love me for me. He does that and more. I can't put into words my love for this man. 

I hope that you are thankful for the people and things in your lives. With out them.. what is your day made of? 

here is a funny to end the post with. I asked my brother to take a picture of my husband and I. I said "Can you make me look skinny?" this is what I got. Thanks JC. 

Random photos

As I have mentioned before, I have been trying to take more photos and working in a program to edit them. I am not very good. I am having a hard time learning the difference in ISO and all the specific settings. But hey- I am doing something that is different. I am hoping that for Christmas or my birthday I will get a book on photography and some tutorials. In the mean time, here are several photos I have that I like.

 what do ya'll think? Any advice or suggestions?

5 on Friday

I love 5 one Fridays. I am not sure why I don't do them more often. I Linked up with Natasha from Hello! Happiness for another rendition of 5 on Friday.

{one} Love the weather
The weather here in north Houston has been pretty marvelous this past week or so. I think it is safe to say that Fall is here and hopefully here to stay for a while. I just wish it would drop about another 10 degrees in the day and evening, and it would be perfection!

{two} Football Friday
Football season for the highschool is starting to come to an end. We are still in the contention of play offs. With a new coach this year, a playoff spot would mean a ton for his credibility. So lets see what happens with these last 4 games of the year :)

{three}Nothing
Yep, that is what I have planned for this weekend. Absolutely NOTHING. No alarm set for Saturday morning, no agenda, no must have's. Just a weekend of want to's. If I want to get out of my PJ's I will, if not, PJ's it is for the day :)

{four} Shake it off
That stupid, yes stupid, Taylor Shift song Shake It Off is stuck in my head. It has an insanely catchy beat and just keeps playing over and over in my head. I wish I was tech savvy enough to be able to put a clip of the song in here. But I have NO idea how to do that.

{five} Last but not least.... Randomness
I have my wedding photos on my work computer as my screen saver, so I randomly catch pictures that I didn't remember seeing when I first got my photos. The ONE thing that I notice more than anything, I was a freaking sap at my wedding that and I have one ugly face when I cry. LOL

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

Several Days..

Instead of doing a daily update of my October photo challenge, I decided to do a weekly update. In hopes that I will actually complete this one.

Here is the challenge...

{one} a selfie

Granted this was NOT from October 1st.  But it is a selfie

{two} fall leaves 

We don't really get fall leaves here. So I found the next closet thing. 

{three}night sky 

Usually I get a night sky picture before kick off of Football, but I was working Volleyball that evening so I ran outside and got this picture. Turned out to be a much prettier sky than I thought

{four} handwriting.... I failed miserable with this one. I tried and couldn't find anything for handwriting. oopps 

{five} make up

Look at that make up!! This guy is famous for the Houston Texans. We saw him at a tailgate in Arlington for the Texans/Cowboys game

{six} addiction - My addiction is completely of taking pictures of the sky. I do it all the time. My instagram is filled of pictures of the sky. 

I will add more probably next week. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Fall Bucket List

Yes,  I stole this from Kayla at My King of Yellow It is such a great idea!! Plus, If you haven't read her blog, go do it!! I am just one of those crazy stalker blog ladies. I have never met her, but I know we would be friends if we met.

1. Which will obviously happen... Decorate our house. I bought new stuff at the end of last year's Halloween and I am excited to put it out.

2. Decorate our yard for our Halloween Party. I have never done this, so it should be interesting. Any good ideas? My parents threw great Halloween parties when we lived overseas. My mom said she would help me come up with some ideas and would go thru old pictures to see what she can find.

3. Carve pumpkins with my husband. Last year we didn't carve any, so I am hoping this year we can get around to doing it

4. Complete a October Photo Challenge... USING my husbands big camera.
This is the one I am going to do....


 

5. Try 3 pumpkin flavored dishes. I have NEVER tried anything Pumpkin. It scares me. Yet I LOVE the smell of pumpkins

6. Have a Fall inspired double date night. I think picking pumpkins, or going to a fall festival. Something like that would be exciting to do.

7. Cook a dish for Thanksgiving Dinner that is new and different.

I came up with 7. How many items do you have on your Fall Bucket List?

It is....

OCTOBER 1ST!!!!! 

This is by far the best time of the year. I like to call them the BER months and they are officially here!!!  I woke up today with a smile on face and ready to start decorating, which will have to wait till after work today.

Anthony got down my Halloween boxes 2 weekends ago, and I think I have gone through  them 20 times already, but have left them in the garage. Today.. they will  make their way into the house and things will go up on the walls!! Today and tomorrow will be shorter days at work, which means I will have more time at home to decorate. We will be out of town this weekend so I need to get it done sooner rather than later.

This also means, I get to go buy Halloween candy for our neighbors. I wont be able to to trick or treat/hand out candy this year though :( We have a varsity football game that on actual Halloween night, so I plan on giving some candy to our neighbors kids before hand. Also, welcome in the new family that  moved in down the street last weekend.

Does everyone else really just love Halloween and these next couple months? or is it just me?


Have a great day!!

5 on Friday

I like list. So I love 5 for Fridays and since it is our bye week at work, I actually have time to think today!! 

{one}

I am wearing a pair of wind pants that I got while in college. I put them on this morning and they still fit. Amazing, except I remember now why I don't wear them. The inside of them are itchy because they are THAT old. Julie-  you know what pair I am talking about!!! 

{two}

It has been a rainy 3 days here in north Houston. I love rainy weather. It just makes me want to curl up and watch trashy tv shows. Too bad I have a jammed packed weekend and a TON of things to do to get organized for the weekend. 

{three}

Speaking of a ton of stuff to do this weekend. I have a jammed packed weekend ahead of me. Tonight is girls night! I am getting to see some girls I haven't seen in a while. We are going Top Golf. I have never been and have heard great things about it.  Tomorrow- I am helping host a baby shower for a great friend, then it is my hubbys 10 year high school reunion and THEN we are going to his parents house on Sunday afternoon to watch the Texans game and celebrate his birthday and his dads. Jammed pack I tell you!! But I am looking forward to all of it. 

{four}

I updated my phone last night to the IOS 8. I think I like it so far. Not to many changes that I could tell. Just little things. BUT the big thing is that you have to have 4.6 GB of available space to download the update. I only had 1.1 GB of space, so I had to go thru and delete a bunch of stuff. I had 5.3 GB just in messages. I made the decision to delete ALL my message except the ones from my pawpaw. That free'd up all the room I needed :) 

{five} 

I am sad/happy to admit that I listened to Christmas music yesterday. I was in a mood and needed something to put me in a much happier mood and Christmas music does it for me. I instantly was happier and ready to tackle the world!! Is that strange? 

Hop everyone has a great weekend! 

Getting Ready- Day I became a married women

I realized that I haven't done ANY post about my recent  wedding. How sad is that?  I know there are a ton of link up series for weddings but I don't necessary blog as often or consistent as I should/want to, so I am just going to do my own write ups on it.

Getting ready the day of the wedding was a surreal moment for me. I was surrounded by great friends and family and about to take the biggest walk of my future.

The day started bright and early in the Presidential Suite at the Marriott. I somehow or another got upgraded to a gorgeous room.

We all pilled into Courtney's rental car and made our way to the wedding venue. Along the way, there was a very crazy  stop at Starbucks, talk of stopping at Target and a phone to call my then-fiance to get my last minute things that I forgot.

Once we got to the Venue, I showed my girls around and then we set up shop in the Bridal suite and waited on hair and make up to start. It seemed like the hours just dragged on. I was so excited and ready to get going, but wanted to savor all the details.

My brother came in before I got dressed to give me his gift, and to give me my husband gift to me. It was a monogrammed North Face vest. We went to Alaska for our honeymoon and it was the perfect gift. I was so surprised. I got him a personalized autograph JJ Watt jersey. I actually got it almost 2 weeks after the wedding, so on the day of the wedding, I had a book of the 100 reasons I loved him.

Between the getting ready and taking pictures, we had some sandwiches and played some games with my adorable flower girl. As the time got closer and closer to walk down the aisle, I had several friends stop in to say hello and then came the moment that my bridesmaids had to go line up.

Talk about nerves starting to set it. I have always been the type of person that when I walk in a room and I am nervous that my first instinct is to turn around and walk back out. Well, that isn't something I could do this time. So as my dad and I made the walk down to the chapel he asked me questions like how the job hunt was going, what was the coolest injury I had ever scene, you know things that I thought he was asking to make me less nervous. Turns out he was doing it more for himself!!!

I could go on and on, but I would rather let the pictures do the justice.  So here is my photo dump!

All our beautiful pictures were taken by Jackie Ray. She is amazing! Go visit her website.

Kitchen

My Hubs and I have been working on fixing up our house and making it a home. Right now we are in the middle of it being painted. We are extremely blessed that my father in law owns a carpeting/painting company so we just had to the buy the paint (which we got on a huge labor day sale) and he is sending his guys to paint. The only downfall you ask? They started on Monday, went to another job Tuesday and Wednesday and hopefully will be back to finish Thursday. Not a huge deal, but our house is a disaster and in major shambles because of it. I am still beyond thankful for my father in law to foot the bill of the painters. So blessed.

I am working on a before/after post with pictures for the house with the new painting and the new lighting. Until then I have done some searching on Pinterest for pictures of kitchens/decor/organization that I like and want to incorporate into our house. Here are the pictures

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I need to start looking at thrift stores and cheaper places for things to decorate with. Where do you find good deals? 

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday. I get to go to Target today and buy stuff for a baby shower I am throwing Saturday :) I just love babies!!

Calm Down!!

I hate the words Calm Down. I hate even more when I am upset about something and someone tells me to calm down. I feel like the person telling me to calm down doesn't respect the fact that I am upset. Which leads me to this post. I get upset/worried about the stupidest things ever. My mom is a huge worrier and I swear, that is one of the ONLY things I got from her. 

Example: Last week I took my mom to the airport bright and early. She was going to NYC but meeting my dad in DC first. She told me to text her in about 30 minutes to make sure she got to her gate okay and everything. So once I got home, I called her. No answer. I texted. No answer. So I thought maybe she just didn't hear her phone. I waited a little bit. About 30 minutes later.. Nothing.  So I panicked. And by panic I mean... Kinda had tears, emailed my mom several times, blew up her phone, called my dad, texted my husband and pretty much went into "I've watched way too many dateline episodes mode".  Finally about 20 minutes later my phone rang... It was my mom. Her phone was at the bottom of her purse and she didn't hear it ring. WOW I panic  and am screwed when I have kiddos. 

I am currently waiting to hear from a lady about a potential job and I am inpatient as all get out. I am panicking on the inside that I didn't get it and I am back to square one.  Well I happen to text my husband about it today and this was his response. 

    

The Fortune cookie says "Don't Panic" Oh how he knows me so well. 

Well off to do more work!! Have a great day and hope you enjoyed reading my extremely random Post! 

Growing up

I love making list and checking things off. It is one of my ways of staying organized and feeling like things get accomplished. But I have noticed that lately, I don't feel like I am setting any goals for the long term but more trying to get out of where I am. So I decided to re visit my "Bucket List" and add some things to it. 

1. Graduate from TCU with my Bachelors

2.  Start taking more photos with A's Digital SLR camera 

3. Get Engaged and marry the man of my dreams 

4. Start a family

5. Run a Half Marathon (Started training for a 10K) 

6. Be comfortable with my body

7. Pay off my Credit Card Debit

8. Pay off my Student Loan 

9. Visit all 50 States (Check here for my progress)

10. Learn to cook 

11. Learn to Wake Board

12. Swim with Dolphins
13. Go white water rafting
14. Travel to Italy
15. Buy a new car

16. Learn to eat for my body, not to just eat 

17. Run 1 more half marathon and enjoy it

18.Find a Career that I enjoy (This really should be #1 right now. I am struggling big time with this) - I am looking into recruiting. Haven't had too  much success though. 

19. Spend my 30th birthday or Christmas in the snow somewhere I have never been before

20. Host more things at our house 

21. Enjoy Life 

Now, I know that this is an every changing list, but at the moment these are some of the things I am looking forward to accomplishing in the next several years. 

I have noticed that I am starting to shift my wants/needs for when A and I start a family and what type of mother that I want to be. It is so funny how up to one year ago, I never thought about things like that. I now notice how my friends take care of their kids, the things they do, and just their overall motherly ways. I am not any where near starting a family. But I can't help but start wondering about those things.  Am I alone on this? Or does this happen to women at some point in their lives? 

When was the last time you looked at your bucket list? Have you accomplished anything off of it recently?

Photography

I am not sure anyone even reads this blog anymore, I know I wouldn't. I rarely post. I have a hard time putting my thoughts into words. I would rather just read about everyone elses lives :)

I did want to start posting some things alittle more though. One thing that I have been working on is my photography skills. Considering I have ZERO, I have nowhere to go but up!  I am blessed that my husband has a great DSLR camera that he is letting me play/learn with.

So this weekend I decided to just take random pictures and play with learning things like the exposure triangle. I found a great website called Digital Photography School. It has been interesting/challenging to learn the different settings and how they affect pictures.

After taking about 200 pictures I came out with a good 6 or 7 pictures. I was hoping that if people still read this blog, I want some advice/criticism.   Here are some photos

I finally learned to move my fingers out of the way from the flash means this would have been a much better picture!! 

Please let me know what ya'll think. I NEED criticism and advice!!

Thank you

Update

Well well well, It has been a while since I have posted on here. I was doing so well, and then... life happened.  Here is a quick small update

1. I got married!!!! I will have to do a long post/update on that big event in my life. I can say that I am by far the luckiest/happiest person in the world to have married my husband. He is the perfect person for me.

2. I am looking to change my career in the next couple years. Nothing big yet but working towards it

3. It is finally an ER month. I love this time of the year. I am hoping that the weather will slowly start to get cooler and I can bust out the jeans and hoodie sooner rather than later.  Even though, I am trying to dress nicer, nothing beats jeans and a hoodie.

4. I am thinking about taking some photography classes. I want to be better at taking pictures and capturing moments. I current suck at it, but want to get better. Any advice? Luckily A has a really good camera and I can just use his instead of buying a nice big one.


That is all I have for now. Need to get back to work!! Hope you have a great day

Half Marathon

On Sunday, Jen and I completed our first ever half-marathon.  It was called The Divas Half in Sunny and Beautiful Galveston Texas.

Sunny and Beautiful my butt!! It was cloudy, overcast, 100% humidity and gloomy. Thankfully there was a nice sea breeze that was going on though.

We started training for this half in December. Training went as well as expected. Had some great runs, some okay runs, and some down right crappy ones.  But overall I enjoyed the whole process. It was new for me to run with someone. My friend Julie is a big time runner and way to good/fast for me to have every run with. I enjoyed the conversations Jen and I had during our long runs. So, on race day, I thought I would be good. I had someone next to me that would make it enjoyable.

I was wrong. I don't know if I just had a really bad run, or what, but it was bad enough of a race that I am pretty sure I don't ever want to run a half again in my life.

                                             That me... on the left. I look stupid when I smile that early in the morning.


Here is my mini break down of the race.

1-4 were okay. I started to get tired around 3. Not sure why, I had done some GREAT 8 and 9 mile runs. I am talking GREAT!!

Around my 5, I started to panic about how much was left. I even sent Julie a text.

Me: This is the dumbest shit ever. Never again.
Julie: You're done?!?!
I had to giggle.. I only WISH I was done 
Me: Nope. Thinking of giving up
Julie: Do NOT give up. How much do you have left?
Me: 5 (wishful thinking).... 6 I lied.

This girl is great. She checked on me several times and was very motivating.

Poor Jen though. I was in tears at mile 6 and she stood by me and pushed me along.

5-8 were run/walk. Mostly a shuffle on my end. I have been having some chest pain and wasn't to happy about it. (I am going to the MD on Friday. No worries)

About mile 8 I sent A a text message

Me: If I finish... it will be a miracle
A: I'm sure you will. You're doing better than I ever would :)
Me:

                                                             That's my nope face.
A: haha


Around mile 10 I had a high. You know when people get drunk and start saying " I love you" to everyone? I was there. I kept telling Jen, that I wouldn't be able to get this far with her blah blah blah. The cop got a kick out of it.

10-11 Jen and I pushed through some major winds, and made some friends. This was their 5th half. (Made my secret goal... I will beat them.. I did!!) They were pretty cool, gave me some advice for if I ever get crazy and think of doing another one.

11-13.1. Jen left me in the dust! She had stuck my side up to this point, and I could tell she had it in her to push through faster than me, so she took off. She kept looking back to make sure I was still moving though.

13.1- Time 3:21.

We had a time limit of 3.5 to finish the race. Our goal was to finish in time and NOT be picked up in the bus. We accomplished that!!

I found Jen after the race and we sat down in between two cars on a curb. I lost it. I just bawled. I was so dang happy that it was over.

This magnet symbolizes finishing to me. Sounds stupid, but it means alot. 

I swear, I am not constipated in this picture, I was on the verge of tears and didn't want to cry in front of this stranger that I asked to take our picture. haha

My pretty sweet medal. Only get this if you finished within the 3.5 time limit. I did that! 

All in all, I didn't enjoy it like that I hoped I would. We will see what the future holds for me with running after this. As for the days after, I was okay Sunday. I am notorious for getting dehydrated and I did not get dehydrated this time. I was sore and hurt. But nothing more than expected. Yesterday, HOLY SORENESS!!! Most moves were difficult, plus I didn't sleep very well at all.  As of this morning, I am a little sore. Not nearly as bad as yesterday, but sore.   I shall live!!

Yelp, that is my story.  Thank you for reading it. Hope everyone has a great day :)

Finish This

I read this from Sarah @ Tucker Up this morning and just loved the prompts. So sorry Sarah but I am now following in your footsteps. :)


1. I don't get enough.... play time with the dog and the cat.  I wish I could sit down and play with them more, but right now I feel like I am go go go and things are never ending. I have learned that when I just lay around on the couch before bed, that I have a hard time going to sleep. Hence, I have been trying to keep myself busy (which isn't hard right now), indulge in some PM Yoga then its straight to bed. So what if its 930 or 10 at night. 5 am comes early.

our dog Jude 

My lovely cat Blue 

2. My favorite indulgence is.... Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. That stuff is like crack to me. I can buy a half gallon and I promise you that it will be gone in less than 48 hours. I am obsessed with it. Not as obsessed as my mother. I went over there the other day and I stole a small bowl of the it. When I was putting the carton back in the freezer outside I noticed THREE other cartons of it!! CRAZY!


3. I made a major change in my life when..... This is TBA. I may have some exciting news after a meeting set up for this week.


4.You should read..... Linda Fairstein. She is the ex Assistant District Attorney of Sex Crimes in NYC. She has a series called the Alex Cooper series. Basically Alex is the Assistant DA for Sex Crimes and there is a case and they try and figure it out. Sounds like Law & Order- SVU right? Well the catcher is that Linda puts a ton of history into the case. For example;  Death Dance is about the murder of a Ballerina. But it goes in great depth about the Ballet and the buildings that they are performed in and around NYC.  Hell gate is about a sex trade crime. But it goes into the history of NYC and sex trade. All historical factors are true. So it combines my love of Law & Order + History!

5. My secret ingredient is ..... Paprika. I use it to season my vegetables all the time. It gives it just a little extra kick.

Hope you enjoyed this!! Thank You Sarah for the great post today.

Weekend

I am beyond lucky to have some of the most amazing friends a girl could ask for. This past weekend, A and I went to Las Colinas on Saturday for my besties wedding reception. She got married in Vegas in December, so this was her mini party back home.

We fully planned on leaving early Saturday morning, like 8 am. But in reality, we got on the road about 11. Which is fine with me. We took our time getting to the hotel, checked in and then took a trip to Cabelas. I found a perfect jacket for our honeymoon cruise, plus it was on sale! A made a comment that he thought I would get hot in it. Too bad the weather decided to prove him wrong, and Sunday morning was cold, rainy and in the LOW 40's. Considering I didn't pack anything but spring clothes, I popped the tag off that jacket and wore it!!

Saturday night was a blast. The reception was held at a restaurant called The Ranch. The food was amazing and it was an open bar. Considering that this was the 2nd time in 3 weeks to see this group of girls, the conversations never stopped and it was just a complete blast. A finally got to meet most of the girls, and of course his beard took over every conversations!! (I love his beard)

There is a random picture of  my shoes, because I wore those to a wedding, and this was the first time I wore them again. They were too big for me. Bonus- I tripped on the way to the bathroom and a random couple at the bar saw me, and bought me a shot of Firefly because the boyfriend busted out laughing when I tripped.

Sunday morning, A and I made a stop at a really cool Fuzzy's that had just opened. It was an old gas station converted to a restaurant. I loved it, and I loved the food. Their chicken quesadilla totally hit the spot of my hung over self. (Open bars are never a good thing). We stopped off at my besties parents house for brunch and then it was back to Houston we went.  Several hours later we finally made it home. This was my "It looks like the Walking Dead" moment. There was a wreck and the freeway was shut down for a while. It was kinda creepy when you reference The Walking Dead to it.

I started my 24 day Advocare challenge several days before we left for Las Colinas. So I made sure to pack all the necessary things I needed for the trip. I was impressed with myself. Has anyone else done this challenge?

All in all, It was a great weekend. This weekend, is my 1st Half Marathon and I am nervous and excited at the same time. Wish me luck!