Summer Bucket List 2014

I've been meaning to post my Summer Bucket List since May 1st yall, but obviously I didn't quite make it for that... But it's still fine, because they're is of course still of ton of summer-time left. I mean technically summer hasn't even officially begun yet, but us Floridian's don't pay attention to actual season, and just base it on the scorching temperatures.

So it's unofficially summer down here now, and so I'm sharing my short little list of summer goals and plans. Can't wait get going on these, and share all the updates along the way!

1. Go kayaking (with our Groupon for a trip down the Santa Fe River!) wrote about it HERE
2. Start running in the mornings again, two days a week
3. Find a new house, maybe even one with a fenced-in yard for Primrose
4. Host a family BBQ out on our deck before we have to move
5. Visit a new beach in Florida, to collect another jar of sand and shells
6. Read 3 books (other than GoT, once I finish that series)
7. Get the second bedroom completely clean and ready for the boys to be here in June
8. Go to an FSU baseball game (since we didn't make it to one in time for my "spring" list...)
9. Go camping again (since we didn't make it in time for my "spring" list...)
10. Figure out the favorite books link-up idea I have swirling in my head, and do it!
11. Try three new restaurants around town (1. Merv's Melt Shop...)
12. Explore a new city nearby
13. Roast weenies & s'mores with the boys in our fire pit on the deck
14. Get snow cones from Big Easy Snowballs and eat them outside at Lake Ella
15. Set up a blate for a few Tally bloggers I haven't met yet

We are already planning to go on our kayaking trip this Saturday, and I'm super pumped about that. It's going to be so much fun! Did any of y'all make a list of summer goals and plans? If so, let me know so I can go check it out! Or if you haven't made one yet, you should! Because it's fun :)

Currently

I don't really have anything specific planned for today's blog post, but yesterday I came across an old hand-written note from probably two years or so ago, where I listed out all the "currently" prompts for a blog post. So I think today I'll just be doing one of those... They're quick and fun, and I actually really like them (both writing my own and reading other peoples'), so here we go!

Eating // Apples & Cinnamon oatmeal, with PB2 stirred in. If y'all haven't tried putting peanut butter in your oatmeal, I would highly recommend doing it! It is amazingly delicious, and it makes it so smooth and creamy.

Drinking // My morning cup of joe. With some yummy creamer in it - that I think it called caramel sundae or something, but I'm not 100% on that one...

Missing // My husband! The twins had their tonsils removed yesterday, so he went up there to be with them. I didn't have enough time off work, so I couldn't go, and now I'm really missing that man of mine. It's harder than I thought it would be being at home without him for a few days.

Reading // The Game of Thrones series on my Kindle PaperWhite. I just started book four ("A Feast for Crows") on Tuesday. The series is really good, but it's just so dang long! My goal is to finish the last two books by the end of May. Because y'all, I've been reading them since like December! I'd say I need to wrap it up soon...

Watching // Parenthood on Netflix. Well I mean not right this second, but you know what I mean. I'm about halfway through the second season, and it's just so good. I might have teared up a bit in one of the episodes I watched last night.

Wishing // I didn't have to go to work today, and could instead be outside enjoying the beautiful sunshine on this lovely day.

Planning // To go back to kickboxing again tonight, for only the second time! But this time, my friend Angie will be coming too, so I'm pumped for that! Also, I'm going to make sure I wear my Polar Heart Rate monitor, because I am really interested to see how many calories I'm going to burn.

Listening To // Country radio station (WTNT for you locals).

Craving // Sushi. I feel like every time I write one of these currently posts, that's always my answer. But it's true, and I want it so bad now. Haven't had it in months but it feels more like years at this point.

Wearing // My very favorite bright turquoise dress. It's just so bright and colorful, and I love it so much.

Excited For // The two weddings we'll be going to in the next month! One is for one of my old friends from college, so we get to go back to St. Augustine for the weekend! The other one is for a new friend-couple of ours that live in Atlanta, so we get to road trip up there too!

Smelling // My perfume-of-the-day: Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana. My Grandmother bought it for me for my birthday or Christmas one year, and it's seriously one of my favorites.

Feeling // Annoyed. I just realized all of my old posts that had links back to other older posts, those links no longer work. I was able to transfer all the old posts to my new blog, but now those old links with the old URL are all invalid. So if I want them to work I will have to manually update them to my new URL address. Gross. Would that even be worth all the trouble? I'm not so sure...

Anticipating // My husbands return home tomorrow night! He won't be here till probably 9pm, but at least he'll finally be back. And hopefully we'll never have to do this kind of thing again. I also now know we could never be one of those long-distance couples. Kudos to y'all, but I can't do that.

Please feel free to do a post like this of your own, and then let me know so I can check it out too! Enjoy your Thursday ladies :) I'm going to try to have a good day and a positive attitude no matter what. Try it out and maybe it'll turn your day around!

High Five for Friday - Week #4

You guys, I'm really enjoying being back in the blogging world now. The five-month break I took was absolutely necessary, for a couple of reasons, but now that I'm back, I'm so glad to be here. I came back excited about writing, and about sharing my life, and reading about your lives. And I came back refreshed from all the silly blog-drama that goes on when thousands upon thousands of girls are all trying to achieve some level of popularity at this little hobby of ours. It's just silliness really. But it feels good to have gotten some perspective on that.

And now I just want to get back to documenting my life, and my interests, in whatever way I want to, without the pressure to conform or perform, or get 30 bajillion page views a day. So that's what I plan on doing. I just wanted to get that all out in the open now that I've been back for about a month now. Anyways, let's move on and get to the fun that is High Five for Friday with Lauren, because I really do like these posts :)

1. I went to a new kick boxing class with a friend from work last night, and it was killer! It's "cardio kick boxing" so it's very high energy. Thursday's is apparently arms day, and so we did a lot of pushups and little weight things too. Then at the end, she made us all go outside and run a lap around the center, which was probably less than half a mile, but it was still rough. I forgot to wear my Polar heart rate monitor, but I feel like I must have burned like 11,000 calories... Going back again next Thursday though!

2. One of the photo prompts this week for the April photo challenge on Instagram was "Hobby." So I took a photo of some of my very favorite books, and I just like it :)

3. My self-designed blog is so super cute, right? And the best part, it completely fit into our budget this month, because it cost a whopping ZERO dollars since I figured it all out myself. Still not perfect, since I need to tweak and fix a few things, but I'm still loving it :)

4. Speaking of the budget, we cut up some credit cards this week at our weekly Financial Peace University class, and that felt great! We completely paid off one of them last week, and now it will never have a balance again! (The other one was Macy's and it had only been used once in like, 2011, just to get 20% off my swimsuit purchase...)

5. I made this amazing SkinnyTaste Macaroni Casserole for dinner the other night, and it was so stinking yummy!! My pictures may not look magazine-worthy, but let me tell you, this was so delicious, and so easy! I modified the recipe a bit though, because I was scared of the whole not-cooking-the-pasta-ahead-of-time thing. So then once I put it all together, I just put it in the oven long enough to melt the cheese, so like 10-15 minutes.

And since more than just five things need high fives this week, here are a few more awesome things I just want to share today...
- Did y'all see the round robin giveaway on Instagram this week? Well, I won a $10 Amazon card from it!
- I printed a whole bunch of pictures last weekend for the house, and I also updated all the frames and stuff in my office, and it's making me happier.
- I've been reconnecting with a lot of my old blog friends this week and it's been a lot of fun.

So that's about it for today now. This weekend is sure to be fun, because it's the opening concert weekend at the new Cascades park! I won four tickets, so we invited two of our friends to meet at our house, then all go together, so we're looking forward to that. Tonight is also a big block party for the FSU spring game, which is tomorrow. And who knows what else the next few days might hold?! Looking forward to it of course :) Hope y'all have a had an equally good week, and wishing you an even better weekend!

My Life in Random Numbers

Well once again I'm coming to you today with post inspired by my blog-friend, Erin at Love, Fun and Football. What can I say? Apparently I want to be a blogger like her when I grow up! So today's post is a list of random numbers and figures that make up some random aspects of my life right now....

451 - blog posts I've written since I first started back in August of 2010, including this one

6 - months we've been married (and 3 days...)

2 - children I have (twin step-sons for now, more to come in the future hopefully!)

You guys like how I sneak random wedding pics in sometimes?!

26 - years I've been living on this earth

9 -  months I've been working in my current position at work

3.5 - years I've worked at the Florida Department of Corrections

563 - miles on Runkeeper I've biked, hiked, walked, and ran

7 - jars of sand from beach trips with my husband over the three years of our relationship

2.5 - books I've read so far this year (Game of Thrones books are SO long, it takes forever to read them!)

3 - Olympus cameras - one old, one new, and one waterproof

2 -  cars I've had since I was 16

And now for some of my little "collections" and obsessions....

308 -  books on our two main bookshelves... although there are still some boxed up that haven't made it out since we moved into this house (plus 12 cookbooks and 56 shared e-books on my Kindle PaperWhite and Jeff's Kindle Fire)

This is only 3 of the 5 shelves here in the living room, and there's also a whole other bookshelf in the other room too

105 - bottles of nail polish, including glitters and sparkles

25 - perfumes and body sprays, plus about that many more lotions

51- rolls of washi tape I own (how much is too much?)

39 - pairs of earrings, not including tiny studs (I thought this number would be higher actually)

30 - dresses, including one bridesmaids dress and one wedding dress :)

You guys - I like really, really love making random lists. Like maybe, I might need to go into some sort of 12-step program or something for it. Or maybe I should just make it a weekly feature to write lists for the ole' bloggy-blog. We'll see how it goes next week, if I can come up with something else. Anyways, this was another fun, easy post, and I encourage you guys to do one like this too. And if you do, let me know so I can check it out!

High Five for Friday: Week 3

It's Friday morning now, and I'm just clinging to the hope that work flies by today, because as usual, I'm ready for the weekend! (Not like there's ever a Friday that doesn't apply, but still...) This past Monday I didn't feel like writing a post, so I didn't recap my weekend. And since not too much happened this past week, today's High Five For Friday (with Lauren Elizabeth) post will be a mix of last weekend, and a little bit from this week as well...

1. Seriously you guys, my doggie is the cutest girl ever! Look at her squishy little face sleeping under the pillow :)

2. Last weekend, my Mama and I had a little day-date together, and it was such a nice day. We had lunch at one of our favorite local spots, Hopkins, and sat outside to enjoy the nice weather. Then we ran some errands, including a "grand tour" of the local Hobby Lobby. (That means we walked up and down pretty much every single aisle.) And somehow, I made it out of there spending under $20 bucks. Amazing right? I know, I know. 

3. I absolutely love making us really yummy Saturday morning breakfasts. This past weekend, I made "open-faced" ham, egg & cheese biscuits. Well, they only turned out to be open-faced because I had prepared too much eggs and ham to all fit inside the biscuit. But it was delicious!

4. Have you guys heard of The Little Free Library? I only just heard of it a couple of weeks ago, when I stumbled upon the hashtag on someone random persons Instagram. But they're so cool! It's just a little "take a book, return a book" kind of deal, but they put them in the cutest little baby book-houses! Last weekend, my Mama and I found the two here in town, and I got some great books. (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea {hardback, Reader's Digest copy!}, The Cricket in Times Square and Hansel & Gretel, A Little Golden Book.) Can't wait to see what other things I find the next time I go back! If you like books as much as I do, you should check out their national map and see if there's one in your town.

5. I watched "Frozen" twice this past week, and it was so stinking good. Once on Wednesday night at home with Jeff, and then on Thursday night with my whole family on family dinner night. When I watched it at home with Jeff, I was singing at the top of my lungs to every song, but I tried to refrain from such dramatics with the whole family, because some of them hadn't seen it yet, and I figured they might want to hear Idina and Kristen rather than me ;) It's just so stinking good!

So that wraps it up here for the past weekend/week and my high fives... This weekend we were going to go camping, but it turns out it's supposed to thunderstorm pretty much all weekend. So we're postponing the trip, and hopefully we'll go next weekend instead. If the weather isn't too nasty, I might do some garage sale rummaging in the morning with my dad. Otherwise, I'm sleeping in and being lazy on the couch all morning. And then we're crossing our fingers that it's sunny on Sunday afternoon, because we want to head down to the beach for a couple of hours! So here's hoping that happens. 

Hope y'all have had a good weekend, but that you have a great weekend! I'll be back on Monday to pick up right where we left. Peace out friends.

Sunny Love,

Halie

Pinstagram Moments

I took the day off work today in order to enjoy a nice, long four-day weekend. So Jeff and I are running errands and planning and researching all-things-wedding. The original plan for taking the day off was to hit up our favorite beach, but it's cloudy and stormy, so that's not gonna happen. So I'm just popping in real quick today to share some little moments from my life lately, through the lens of an Instagram filter. (Idea inspired by my good bloggy friend, Rachel.)

*Side note: I started using the word "Pinstagram" a long while back in order to make it fit in with my theme of starting each post title with a P. However, my dear friend Nicole told me I wasn't allowed to just make up my own words, but I say pish, posh. I like 'Pinstagram,' so 'Pinstagram' it shall be! :) Haha*

1 // This super colorful umbrella makes rainy days a little bit brighter

2 // I wish I could always gorge on delicious sushi, but that's not a healthy idea...

3 // Still obsessed with making this caprese for myself every chance I get

4 // Love cuddling up on the couch with my man and just reading our own books together

5 // We went through a phase of playing card games every night for about two weeks

6 // Random mani, showcased on top of 'The Hobbit' (which I finally finished on Tuesday, and loved)

7 // Got kinda emotional while writing graduation cards for my high school seniors

8 // Delicious cake tasting appointment at Publix, with the cutest wittle baby cakes around

9 // These beautiful purple flowers are blooming allll over the city, and they're so gorgeous!

I love sharing photos on Instagram, and following along with all of my blog friends as well. So of course I'd love for you to hop over and join me there! My username is HalieRenee88, and you can find me here.

Hope y'all's 4th of July celebrations yesterday were tons of fun! If you had to go back to work today, I'm so sorry about that, but no worries - the weekend is well within your reach. Happy Friday to all, and I'll see ya back here on Monday morning!

Plans, Books, Friends & Twins (Friday's Letters)

F-R-I-D-A-Y. Welcome, so glad you're here. (At first I tried to sing that to the tune of SA-TUR-DAY- HEY!, but obviously there aren't enough letters so it just didn't work out at all. At least no one heard me though...) It seems like it's been a long, rough week, and so of course I'm glad to see it come to a close. It's been a hot minute since I've participated in some Friday's Letters, so I'm hopping aboard that good 'ole train today and writing letters to people and inanimate objects alike. Fun times :)

Dear Blog Friends: You guys were so very sweet and encouraging on Tuesday when I was struggling and not having a great couple of days. So glad to have this little space on the internets where I can be honest and raw, and not fear opening up on here with y'all. Thanks again.

Dear Super Smooth Legs: I've shaved you five days in a row, and that's got to be some kind of record for me. Seriously y'all, I usually hate shaving, so even in the summer it's never this many days in a row.

Dear Jeff: The last two night just snuggled up on the couch, reading side by side has been really sweet and cute, and I like it a lot. Definitely wouldn't mind doing that more often :)

Jeff is reading 'The Count of Monte Cristo' and I'm reading 'The Hobbit.' 

Dear Lacey: I'm glad after two years of missing your birthday, that I finally got to celebrate with you at dinner last night! It's about time I'd say. Hope you had a great birthday! (I forgot my camera cord today, so I can't upload any of the pictures yet unfortunately :( I'll send them to you when I do though!)

Dear Fingernails: It's about to get real 'professional' up in here, because I just got lots of new stuff to practice my nail art hobby. But what I'm most excited about are the Bundle Monster stamping plates that just came in! Definitely looking forward to trying those out. My first attempt with them will most likely be something 4th-of-July related, so hopefully it turns out good!

Dear Twins: The last three weeks with y'all have been super fun! And even though we have to take you back tomorrow, you'll be coming back to visit us again for three more weeks at the end of the summer, and we'll definitely have lots of fun then too. We're already looking forward to it and making plans!

Dear Wedding Planning: For the next few weeks between the boys' visits, it's gonna get crazy again. We are now only 99 days away from the big day, and we've got a LOT to do still. After taking a little hiatus to play with the boys for three weeks, I'm super excited to get back at it again!

Dear White Denim Skirt: I'm real glad I can finally fit into you again, because you're super cute. Now I just need to find some more tops that I like, because I either hate most of the ones I own, or the few that I like are too big now - which I guess is a good problem to have. Looks like it's time to spend some of the gift cards I've been hoarding for wayyy too long!

Dear #OperationNoMoreJiggle: I'm sure we will be put to the test this weekend with all sorts of yummy food opportunities, but we must resist! This weekend we need to make better food choices, and eat healthier than usual weekends. It's time to get serious about this thing, and really start to working on getting rid of all this jiggly junk.

So even though we have to take the boys back tomorrow, we do still have a tiny bit of time with them first. Tonight we'll drive to middle Georgia to spend the night at Jeff's brothers house, so that will be good for us to see them, as well as for the boys to hang out with their cousin Libby. Sunday will be spent at home doing chores and laundry, and hanging out with my parents a little bit, because I've barely seen them in the past three weeks while the boys have been here!

I hope y'all have a good Friday, and definitely a good weekend, and I'll see y'all again same time, same place on Monday!

Much Love,
Halie

Perfume, Pictures & Plans (Currently I'm...)

Thursday. One more day before Friday, and then the weekend. Ahhh it's so close I can almost taste it. Right?! Anyways, I love doing these "currently" posts, and it's been quite a while since I've done one. So guess what? That's exactly what I'm going to do today. (Big surprise right? Not like that was actually hard to guess or anything.)

- Wishing: that I didn't have to work today. Jeff took today and tomorrow off to hang out with the boys, and I wish I could have done that too. But I'm OPS (hourly, not salary) so I don't get paid if I'm not working. And I need to get paid...

- Wearing: the pretty pearl necklace my sister gave me as part of my bridesmaid gift last month

- Listening: to Lady Antebellum's newest album 'Golden' on repeat allllll the time. It' so good!

- Missing: my friend, old roommate and bridesmaid, Bridget! She lives in Ohio, so it's not like I see her often, but we have a phone date scheduled for tonight, so I'm excited for that!

- Obsessing: over Gems with Friends on my iPhone. Seriously guys - I think I might actually be obsessed with this game. Get it, and then add me to play: Halez88.

- Craving: sushi again, and I just had it last night. (Not low-carb, I'm aware, but I don't care....) But that's what seems to happen with me though - once I eat it, I crave it again and again and again. Oh, but this was a new place we tried, and liked it a lot. Great prices too, especially for dinner-time sushi. Definitely will visit this place again.

- Planning: a wedding, duh! No but seriously, once the boys go home for 2 weeks, that's 2 weeks full of go-go-go wedding planning time.

- Ignoring: the huge stack of mail that I need to go through. I hate getting junk mail, and I hate having to go through it. I know there's some bills in there though too, so I guess I really do need to get on that.

- Anticipating: Going back to the pool on Saturday for some water and sunshine, and Wild Adventures on Sunday!

- Loving: that the new camera we ordered finally came in last night! We had talked about getting a new one for the honeymoon, and when we saw a great deal on Groupon, we snatched it up real fast. Can't wait to test it out later tonight!

- Reading: 'The Hobbit' and really liking it so far, although I'm only about 50 pages in. I've seen the movie a couple time already though and loved it, so I'm pretty sure I'll like the book too.

- Procrastinating: laundry. I always hate doing laundry. Hate it so much.

- Feeling: dumb because I locked my keys in my car last night, again. This is probably my worst habit - I get to where I'm going, but I'm not ready to get out quite yet. So I turn off the car, and pull the keys halfway out of the ignition. I sit for a minute or two or gather up all my stuff, and then exit the car, lock the doors, and leave the keys still hanging from the ignition. I've got to figure out a way to break that bad habit. (Luckily, I have the greatest fiance ever, and he drove over to my house with his spare before work this morning.)

- Smelling: same as last time I did this in January, my favorite perfume - Versace Bright Crystal

Well that was fun and easy, just like usual. And look at me go - I even had relevant pictures to accompany the post this time. (Granted, I took one of those at my desk this morning just for this post. I'll let you decide which one that was...But still, better than nothing.) We're taking the boys swimming again tonight, at one of their church-friends' houses, so I'm looking forward to that. All I have to do is make it through the rest of the work day first. Blah.

So what are you currently up to? Have any other fun 'ings' to add to my list? Happy Thursday friends :)

Parasites & Pelorosaurus: FFTL Link-Up

Well, most of us are all back at work today after a long, three-day weekend, which makes today feel like a Monday. Which isn't the greatest feeling, until you remember that it IS in fact Tuesday, and we only work four days this week! So then it's not too bad :) And since it's actually Tuesday, and not Monday, that means I'm going to skip my weekend recap for now (maybe it'll happen later this week?), and today we're doing From Firsts to Lasts link-up! And I'm excited because today is the first day we're doing the "lasts" part of this, so I'm excited for a tiny switch-up in things today!

Today's LASTS topics are:

Last book you read

Last movie  you saw in a theater

Last book I read

The last book I read was "The Host" by Stephanie Meyer. I really didn't know anything about the book, but one day Jeff's Granny gave it to me to borrow after she had finished it. She is 85 years old, and I'm 25 years old, and we have the exact same taste in books - we both love the weird, sci-fi/fantasy stuff! I let her borrow The Hunger Games series, and the Divergent/Insurgent books, and she liked those a lot, so now we share books pretty often :) 

So anyways, when I first started reading The Host, it actually took me quite a while to get into it. I had no idea what it was about, and so I was confused at first. But once I found a couple reviews and I got a feel for it, I couldn't put it down! I was constantly trying to sneak in 10 minutes here or 15 minutes there to read just a little bit more. And then once I got near the end, I stayed up till about 2 a.m. one night finishing it! It was really interesting, and I certainly liked it. If you like that kind of genre, then I highly recommend it! I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm hoping to soon, as it's currently in our "cheap" theater here in town. (They get movies about 2 months after they come out, and it's only $3 a ticket!) But anyways, it's about aliens who call themselves "souls" (although the humans call them "parasites") who have invaded Earth, and taken over 99.9% of the human bodies. Some humans still remain in hiding, and this is about their fight for survival. It's really interesting, and I would like this to have been a series so I could read more of the story!

Last movie I saw in a theater

I'm not 100% sure on this one, but I'm thinkin' it was Jurassic Park about a month ago. And we actually saw it one and a half times! We went on a Thursday night, and got over half way through the movie, when the power went off in that entire part of town. So they kicked us out of the theater, but gave us free readmission tickets to come back again. So we went back the very next night, and watched the whole thing from the beginning again! And it was so good - way better than I remembered! I was actually jumpy and squealy at a few parts, like I was 7 years old again! But it was lots of fun :)

If you'd like to join in on this fun link up, check out the super simple 'rules' below, and get to writing! Can't wait to see all the new link ups this week, meet new friends, and read y'all's posts!

1. Write your own post about this week's topics & link up with us!

2. Put the new button on your post or somewhere on your blog

3. Visit some of the other links, and share the love with them on their posts!

4. Spread the word on Twitter and/or Facebook

<center><a href="http://penguinspastapolkadots.blogspot.com/search/label/From%20Firsts%20to%20Lasts" target="_blank"><img alt="First Things First" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmFNj40GVx7AP9lraT1humdBRP4sPomeZ4oguCN66q29JzJjlpc-OGntw64ux7ruFcLcYzj_cczAnHhqf7lqCfH98cbM6N2UYQjPLVmUzbsB2FRCj10gkHiz2CEoROFWYqwDUKlvQs85A/s1600/Firsts+to+Lasts+-+1.jpg"/></a></center>

And if you'd like to prepare for next week's link-up, the two 'first' topics will be:

First blate you went on (or who you would like to meet if you haven't done this yet!)

First blog you visit on your reader, blog roll or RSS feed

Plus-Size Workout Barbie & Other Randoms

I liked writing down my random thoughts last Thursday with no rhyme or reason, and I think most of y'all said that you liked it too. So I'm gonna do it again today and see how it turns out this week!

Tomorrow night my  baby sister graduates from college!! It just seems so weird. Sometimes I hardly feel like I'm old enough to be a college grad, but that was three years ago for me now! And now my "little" sister is graduating too?! Weird. Oh, and so is my cousin! They both go to Florida State University, and we got lucky and their graduations are together! (There are like four different grad times throughout the weekend, so really, we were super lucky to only have to go to one for both of them!) Two more soon-to-be alums in our family!

Oh, and for FSU graduation tomorrow, tonight I'll be painting my fingernails garnet and gold, just to be festive :)

Last night after work, Jeff and I went on a spontaneous bike ride! It had been right over six months since we had ridden - six months people! We used to go on about 4-6 rides a month, and now we hadn't been for half a year. Sheesh. The original plan had been to do an easy, 4-mile joyride, but we ended up doing 7.25 miles, and riding a lot of hills! It felt great though - despite the fact both of our booty's are sore today since we're not used to it anymore!

Also, I told Jeff last night (before we rode bikes and I was still looking good and my makeup wasn't all over my face...) that I felt like I looked like "Plus-Size Workout Barbie." I had on a bright pink tank top with a purple sports bra, purple hair band, pink watch, pink on my shoes, and a high, bouncy, semi-blonde pony tail. That's a lot of pink and purple. Oh, and big boobs. Barbies always have big boobs. Plus-Size Workout Barbie indeed.

After our bike ride last night, I made us dinner and it was delish. Like I said yesterday, for the month of May, I'm avoiding meat, cheese, bread and sweets. And I'm making Jeff do it with me for dinner each night too :) So I found a recipe for Skinny Mexican Quinoa (we subbed a can of diced tomatoes with green chilis, instead of tomatoes and chilis, and also added a can of corn in ours too), and it was so simple and so good! Glad we have leftovers for tonight too!

I cut up an avocado last night with our quinoa as well, and it was so fresh and yummy. I wanted to just eat the whole thing right by itself. It just tasted amazing! I'll be having another one again tonight, and then I think I want to buy a whole bag of them! I love making fresh, homemade guacamole - and that would be a great, healthy snack with some carrots! And plus it's so easy to make!

I finally started making some progress in my book. Last Thursday I was on page 50, and today I'm on page 165. However, there's a total of 829 pages - so I still have a loooong way to go in this one.

On Saturday, my Mama, myself and my Aunt Suzanne are going over to Jacksonville for the day to go shopping. My Mama had previously bought a mother-of-the-bride dress to wear to my sister's wedding, but she's been losing weight too, and now it's too big! So she needs a new one, and we've looked everywhere in Tallahassee. So to Jax we go! I'm also hoping we'll try to sneak in a bridal store or two for me to try on some more dresses again :)

I did day one of Jillian Michaels' 6 Week Six-Pack this morning, and that crap is HARD. She is insane. I could only keep up with her like half of the time, and I still felt like I was dying. Maybe I'll like it more once I get used to it, but this morning I pretty much hated it. I did take some "before" shots though, so I can have some comparisons for "after." Maybe I'll share them someday...for now though, I'll keep that mess to myself.

I bought a workout tank top from Costco the other day, for $13. I only got one since I couldn't try it on, and didn't know how it would feel/work, but I wore it to Zumba on Tuesday, and it was awesome! I'm going back tonight to grab a couple more in different colors :) Feels great, awesome price, bright colors. Sign me up.

I wanted to just keep on writing and writing and writing some more, but I think I'm about out of random stuff for the day now. And also I think this post is long enough... So I guess that wraps this up again today! Maybe I'll just start sharing random thoughts every Thursday? We'll see I suppose. For now though, I hope y'all have a great day!

Possibly My Most Random Blog Post

Simultaneously, there is both nothing going on in my brain today, and also too many things swirling around at once. How does that even happen? What does that even mean? I don't know - but that's how it feels! So today's blog post is going to be one of those rare, fly-by-the-seat of my pants ramblings that I don't know where we'll end up, but it seems like it might be fun....So let's see where this takes us, mmmkay?

So, when I ordered my bridesmaids dress for my sister's wedding, I ordered a size smaller than what I was wearing then, thinking I would definitely be smaller by May. Well, I am indeed smaller (by lots of inches in fact!), but I think their dress sizes are jacked up, because that thing was still too small. Like, couldn't zip it up the whole way. Ugh. So two weeks ago I took it to the tailor, and I'm going today after work to pick it up. I just hope she was able to work some magic and that it still looks beautiful! I'm kinda nervous though...

I've shared my whole weight loss story before, and started sharing my actual weight each Wednesday, but I think I also want to start sharing my measurements. So maybe we'll start today! I've been taking them every couple of weeks since January, but I'll just share my first set, and then the most recent, from last night!

January                                                 April 24

Shoulders - 43.5                              Shoulders - 39.5

Chest (Boobs) - 45                         Chest (Boobs) - 42.5

Upper Arm - 16.5                           Upper Arm - 15

Hips - 52                                         Hips - 46.5

Upper Waist/Ribs - 40                    Upper Waist/Ribs - 36

Upper Thigh - 28                            Upper Thigh - 24.5

Neck - 15                                       Neck - 14

Calf - 17.5                                      Calf - 17.5

Around Chin/Head - 25                  Around Chin/Head - 22.5

So that's kind of embarrassing, but it's also great to see that real, tangible progress in the amount of inches I lost, as well as seeing the number on the scale go down too. Because people, that's a total of 24.5 inches lost since January!! (If I'm doing this whole measurement stuff correctly, that is...) And a total of 27.2 pounds lost. And that's amazing.

One of my goals for the year was to read 24 books, and so I was planning to read two a month. Well at this point I've only read five, when I should be on number eight or so. I still want to meet that goal, so I guess I better get moving! I started reading "The Host" almost two weeks ago, and I'm only on page 50 out of 829. Sheesh. Usually I could have finished the whole book by now! I need to get my bookworm mojo flowin' again. 

I just ordered my little sister's college graduation gift, and I'm excited about it! I hope it gets here before next Friday night! And now I just need to figure out what to get her for her wedding present!?!

Last night Jeff and I went to a new restaurant to try out their sushi. But when we got there, it wasn't on their menu anymore. She said not enough people were ordering it, so they took it off the menu. And so now they're basically just a Chinese take-out kind of place. And since we were already there, we felt bad leaving, so we got some super un-healthy, but super delicious General Tso's chicken to share, and it was sooo good. I mean, at least we shared the meal, right?!

Also, my back is reallllyyy sore today. I think it's from the ab class that I did during my lunch break yesterday, but I can't be positive. My abs aren't sore - just my back. So that's kinda strange. But it's definitely uncomfortable.

I'm having lunch with my sister today, which we almost never get to do, and I'm pretty excited about it!!

Aaaannnddd........I think that's enough randomness for the day! Tomorrow I'll be sharing my first post about some of our wedding stuff, and sharing what I did to ask my bridesmaids, to be my bridesmaids! So come back for that, because it was really super cute :) Hope y'all have a good Thursday today! 

Paris, Pens, Playlist, Planner & Pink

I am 'stealing' this idea from my friend Bri over at Breezy Days. She just did this yesterday, and I thought it was so cute, I had to write it down so I could do it someday myself. But I just couldn't wait and started working on it right away, so that I could just post it today! Plus, I've gotten a ton of new followers from a giveaway I'm participating in, so I figure you newbies might like to learn a little more about me. And besides, we all know how much I love lists, right?! 

Well I decided to add a little spin on things, and also add in a few more categories, so here we go!

Sets of FIVES

Five things you'll find in my purse...

1. There's almost always a bottle or two of nail polish in there

2. Six, colored Sharpie pens, that no one else can write with...

3. Burt's Bees chap stick. Always. 

4. Hand lotion, because I hate it when my hands feel dry

5. Little pouch full of gift cards waiting to be spent until I lose more weight (don't want to buy clothes now, then quickly shrink out of them in the next couple months!)

Five things you'll find in my bedroom...

1. Tons of stuff that doesn't have a 'home' so it just sits around somewhere

2. Stuffed animals, even though I'm 25 years old

3. Almost always or pile or basket of clean clothes I don't feel like dealing with

4. A bookshelf stuffed to the brim, and still piles of books on the floor...

5. Candles on just about every flat surface (bookshelf, vanity, dresser, night stand, knick-knack shelf...)

Five things I've always wanted to do...

1. Get a tattoo!

2. Go to Paris

3. Learn the guitar, although recently I've changed that to ukulele ;)

4. Get married

5. Meet and pet a penguin!!

Five random things I'm currently loving...

1. My beautiful engagement ring :) P.S. - Y'all getting tired of me mentioning that? Hope not, 'cause I prob won't stop...

2. My running playlist I made for myself

3. Veggie burgers - just sans bun for a little while since I'm trying to be super low-carb

4. Blogging. But duh, I always love that. It's just been sooo much fun lately! Thanks to you wonderful peeps :)

5. A lot more pink than usual...Turquoise is supposed to be my favorite, but I've been rockin' a lot of pink lately

Five weird quirks I have...

1. I always have multiple water glasses in my room, because I can't drink it again once it gets dusty overnight

2. I'm OCD about really random things (bed sheets, labels, my planner, placement of things)

3. I get creeped out easily and get the heebie-jeebies from the most random stuff. Like, a LOT.

4. I can kind of imitate Mickey Mouse, especially when I say, "Oh boy!" and sometimes when I laugh

5. My toenails must always, always be painted. Otherwise, ew.... I hate it.

Five random songs from my running playlist...

1. 22 by Taylor Swift

2. What Goes Around Comes Around by Justin Timberlake

3. Thrift Shop by Macklemore

4. Keep Holding On by the Glee cast

5. Babel by Mumford & Sons

That was fun, and easy! Just my favorite kind of blog post :) You guys should play along too if you want, because I always like learning more about my blog friends! So what are some random things about you??

Pulse, Plans, Pinterest & Pink

Dear Blog Friends: There are still more and more of you here each day, and it makes me wanna turn in circles and squeal a little bit. I'm resisting though, and trying to act mature about it. But really, it makes me so super excited when new people come and join me here! So, Welcome!!

Dear Edgar Sawtelle: You are a seriously giant book. In fact, you are 562 pages long! Now I've read big books before so it's not uncommon or anything, but you just seem gigantic. I'm only about 65 pages in, so I still have a long way to go. You're interesting enough so far, but I'm gonna need you to pick it up in order to make through almost 500 more pages... I've got faith though, because you were an Oprah's book club selection, so that's a good sign. The last one I read from her book club turned out really great, so I'm sure you've got great potential too! (I just recently joined Goodreads, so come check it out with me if you're a fellow bookworm like myself!)

Dear Running: Things are still going great between us this week! I've done a mile each day on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday. And I hope to be able to do it again today! It may not be very long runs yet, but I'm doing it, and I'm sticking to it. And besides, I've noticed that my average pace is getting quicker, and I'm shaving off time with each run! I think that's a great sign :)

Dear Fingernails: I want to do something really cute and pink and red and girly and glittery for Valentine's Day, but I'm not sure what to do exactly. I'm thinking a dive into Pinterest is in order so I can do some 'research' and get some ideas! Are any of you painting something cute and exciting on your nails for next week?

Dear Mother Nature: Have you lost your mind? I had an at-the-wrong-time, unexpected visit from you just a week and a half ago, and now you're back again today. Unacceptable. I'll go back to my regular once-a-month visit please and thank you. 

Dear Boyfriend: I'm sorry I've been forgetting to wear the new heart-rate monitor watch you got me for my birthday! I don't even know why, because I was so excited about it in the first place! Not to worry though, I've got it with me today, and I plan on using it for my short run after work this afternoon! Can't wait to start tracking another element of my fitness journey! And thanks for such a good birthday present!

Fitness Guru's: From what I've read really quickly about heart-rate, this is a pretty good at-rest number, right?!

Dear Weekend: I'm so excited you're almost here! I really don't even have anything specific planned yet, but it doesn't matter. As long as I'm away from my desk and not staring at a computer for two straight days, it will make me a happy camper! I'm thinking I'll get in a run and/or a trail hike, do some grocery shopping, some movie watching, and spend some time with family, friends and boyfriend. And then Sunday is our 1 year and 6 month anniversary, so I think I have a Living Social deal to an Italian restaurant that would be perfect for Sunday night :)

Dear Boyfriend: Is it kind of crazy that it's been a year and a half already?! Yes, it is kind of crazy. But it's also really awesome. We've had some great times in the past year and a half! You are an amazing boyfriend and I love you so so much! So glad OkCupid brought us together two summers ago!

I hope y'all have a good Friday today, and even even better weekend! What are y'all's plans? Anything fun and exciting to share? I'd love to hear about it! Oh and also, I got some good suggestions yesterday for my running playlist, but I still need some more - so feel free to leave song ideas again today!

And I'm linking up as usual with Ashley at The Sweet Season, so go check her out, and see some other letters too!

Promises - My 30 Before 30 List!!

As of yesterday, I'm officially a quarter-of-a-century old. That's a big deal, right? Maybe, but also maybe not ;) Either way, I'm excited about it! Most of you should know, that for the past six months, I've been working on my list of goals for 25 Before 25, and I've had so much fun! Some were easy, some were hard, some were quick, some took longer, but all were enjoyed. (You can read my final recap in case you want to see how I did on those goals.) One of the things on my previous 25 Before 25 list, was to create a brand new list of 30 Before 30!!

Sent this to a few family members yesterday, just for some fun :)

And of course I've done just that. I haven't written it down and made it look pretty yet like I did with the last one, but I will definitely be doing that soon, so that I can display it as a constant reminder! So without further ado, here's my list of goals for the next five years!

  1. Buy a DSLR for myself, and really learn how to use it
  2. Bake homemade bread, all from scratch
  3. Visit Bridget, wherever she happens to be living at the time!  Attended her wedding December 2017 in Indianapolis!
  4. Read and watch "Gone with the Wind"
  5. Take a cooking class or a painting class - or maybe both!
  6. Get married! (October 5, 2013!!!)
  7. See another Broadway play, or go to any Cirque du Soleil performance
  8. Meet a blog friend IRL (in real life) (DONE 5.9.13 with Angie)
  9. Complete a 5K (Completed The Color Run on 9/7/13)
10. Be healthy! (Hesitant to set specifics, but I'm thinking I want to weigh 150...)
11. Host a dinner party at my own house, cooked all by myself
12. Watch at least 50 of AFI's top 100 films, from 2007 list. (At time of posting, I've already seen 21)
13. Fly on a plane again! (October 6, 2013 - to Cancun on the honeymoon! Indiana, December 2017.)
14. Read at least 50 books. (As of January 2018, I've read approximately 250 books!)
15. Visit a state I've never been to before. (Indiana, December 2017.)
16. Be in a job or career that I love
17. Eat something I've never had before - maybe something a little bit weird and different?! I've tried lots of different things since then, but my favorite has been trying Indian food! It's one of my faves so far!
18. Travel outside of the country (October 6, 2013 - to Cancun on the honeymoon!)
19. Triple my blog followers, blog posts & number of page views (Today: 298 followers, 262 posts & 19740 views)
20. Completely pay off my student loans. (DONE as of July 2017.)
21. Be a part of a flash mob
22. Learn how to drive a stick shift, flawlessly and without stalling (FAIL - tried learning from hubby in 2014, and I was terrible. He actually ended up selling his manual Jetta, to get an automatic Volvo, just so I could drive his car...)
23. Live in my own place (with my husband!) and decorate it just the way I want it (Turquoise House)
24. Attend a renaissance fair
25. Go back to New York City again
26. Go to the Epcot Food & Wine Festival to taste all the yummy foreign foods!
27. Have a pet of my own (adopted Primrose 11/9/13)
28. Figure out how to start putting away money for retirement, and do it (currently enrolled in FPU, so we're working on it...)
29. Go on a spontaneous weekend trip/vacation, without pre-planning anything!
30. Celebrate my 30th birthday in style!!

So, a few of these things are very similar or exact repeats of my 25 Before 25 list, and that's because I didn't do them before, but I would still really like to accomplish, i.e. complete a 5K. But for the most part, I tried to dream bigger and broader than I did with my first list, because now I have five full years to complete these, instead of only six short months.

I really believe that these are things that I will enjoy doing, as well as actually be able to accomplish. However, I will say this: I have no idea where in my life I'll be in two or three or four and half years - so if some of these need to be tweaked or re-worked or deleted with new add-ins, then I'm giving myself permission up front to do that. I mean hello? Five years is kind of a long way off to plan for. So I'm just going to be flexible on these if need be. Because honestly, I'm the only one truly worrying if these are all accomplished anyways!

And besides, the main purpose of this kind of list for me is simply to experience more, travel more, expose myself to more, love more, learn more, treat myself more... LIVE more. And that's exactly what I plan on doing. I plan on living a great life, and enjoying every day that God blesses me with! And while doing that, I plan on doing some awesome things over the next five years :)

Have y'all made any lists like this before? What kinds goals and dreams are on your lists? I'd love to hear more ideas!

Oh, and P.S. - Here's my super short Weigh In Wednesday -- I only lost a pound this last week, putting me at 204 today. I'm blaming that on the very untimely woman issues and some extra bloating because of that... ugh.

Post-Pledge: The Final Recap

As of this morning, I'm considering my 25 Before 25 Pledge list officially over. Tomorrow I will be 25 years old, and it's time to move on! I have created a new list of 30 Before 30, which is full of all sorts of things. Some are small, some are quite huge, but I'm excited about them all. (Those will be posted later this week.) But for this post, I want to do a recap of how things went for my 25 Before 25 goals!

OK first, I want to talk about the 14 goals that I did completely accomplish, and officially crossed off:

1. Explore 3 towns nearby. We explored Panama City Beach, Marianna and Thomasville, Georgia.

2. Try 6 new restaurants. The new ones we tried were: 101 Restaurant, Monk's, Georgio's, Taste Budz Cafe,  Backwoods Bistro, Up in Smoke, Jonah's and Tallahassee Smokehouse. So that's actually eight!

3. Read 6 books. I started off good, then got stuck on one that was too long and boring. "The Swan Thieves" is super long, and it took me like 2 months to read just half of it. I ended up moving on, and not finishing it. I did however read: Harry Potter 1, Daring to Dream, Room, Gone Girl, Out of Mormonism, Divergent, and Insurgent. So I ended up reading 7 books, and half of an extremely long one!

4. Maintain both bank accounts at $_,000. I don't want to divulge what that fill-in-the-blank is, but I will say I accomplished this amount around mid-December! Yay me for saving money!

5. Try 10 different nail art designs. Check, check, check! I probably did around 20 different manicures, not including just plain colors. Below are almost all the designs I tried, although I do know there are a few others missing, but I can't find pictures of those.

6. Have a Bible study with youth in the fall. Also a check! We ended up splitting the youth into high school/middle school and boys/girls, so there were four groups. I got to attend some of both of the girls study sessions, and I loved getting to be with them!

7. Reach 10,000 page views and 200 blog posts. I hit 10,000 page views sometime in October (I think), and my 200th post was in November, when I accepted the Liebster award! As of today, I'm at 19,329 page views and this is post number 259! And I'd say I'm still going strong :)

8. Start learning guitar. OK so maybe I didn't actually learn the guitar, but I did try, and ended up making a decision about it... My hands aren't big enough to fit around the neck, so I'm going to try the ukulele instead! 

9. Do something I've never done before. Well honestly, I have a really funny story for this one, but I'm just not sure it's "blog-appropriate." Let's just say it's about a time when I needed to relieve myself on a bike ride at an inconvenient time... if you email me about it, I might just let ya know ;)

10. Actually do things from my Pinterest pins. By mid-October, I had already made seven or eight new recipes that I got off of Pinterest! And I've definitely made more since then. You can check out some of them at these links: enchilada soup, twice-baked cauliflower and bacon-wrapped lil' smokies, creamy tortellini soup, pan-roasted chicken, pepperoni pizza casserole, and oven-baked chicken fajitas.

11. Update my resume. Check. Not much else to say about that, but it's done!

12. Blog my entire weight loss journey honestly. Did this just two weeks ago, and shared every single detail. And it was great. I loved actually writing the whole thing out, and getting so much amazing feedback back from everyone.

13. Plan one real date night every month. Most of those date nights can be read about in the same posts above about the new restaurants we tried. I'm so glad we made sure to have at least one real date night every month, and it was definitely a fun goal to accomplish :)

14. Make a list for 30 Before 30. Done! And I can't wait to get started on it! :) I'll be sharing it on Wednesday.

Now let's move on to the ones that were only partially finished or not at all finished...

We actually only made it to 4 of 10 State Parks - St. George Island, St. Andrews in Panama City, Maclay Gardens here in Tally, and the Marianna Caverns. I think we probably could have only fit in one more, had Jeff not broken his foot. But 4 of 10 isn't too bad... and we can still use our pass through the end of May.

I do not weigh 180, I did not complete a Couch to 5K, and I did not complete the 30-Day Shred. Unfortunately, I just  got lazy and these didn't happen. I did run a little bit but I quit, and I did the Shred DVD often, just not for 30 straight days. But now I'm working on everything again, and I'm losing weight! I currently weigh 205, and have lost 12 pounds since January 8th!

I didn't get to ride entire length of St. Mark's Trail (16 miles), and I didn't bike 200 miles total. I got nowhere close to 200, and only rode about 55 miles total. I did ride my furthest distance ever, but it wasn't on the trail like I wanted. My furthest was the 20-mile alley cat we did in October.

We didn't get a chance to try geocaching, and I missed the camping trip my Sunday school class took in the fall when I got too sick to go. I memorized three new Scripture verses, but then kind of got stuck there... Oh, and I didn't hang up the pictures in my room yet either.

So 14 of my 25 goals are completely crossed off. Not too shabby, although of course I would have liked that number to be higher! But it doesn't really matter, because I had fun doing them. And some of the ones that I didn't get to cross off, are making a reappearance on my next list of goals anyways.

I got to try new things, eat new food, make new recipes, spend time with my boyfriend, save some money, visit new places, read awesome books, and do so many other things as well. Even though I can't cross off every single thing, I'd still say that I was successful in really living my life over these last few months since I wrote my initial Pledge!

Up through now, I've had a pretty great 24 years. I'm looking forward to what 25 will bring though, and can't wait to see what my life looks like at 30!! Here's to at least FIVE more years of Food, Fun, Family, Fitness and Fabulousness!! Tomorrow, I'll be ready to welcome in The Big 2-5! :)