day 18: if i had my little way...

What is something you wish you could change about yourself?

i procrastinate. in fact, some of my best work has been done as a procrastinator. seriously. i think it's actually that i work better all at once than in stages, and the "all at once" is usually at the last minute as well. some days, though, i wish i could go to sleep or lay around instead of catching up on chores. actually, right now is one of those times. i have laundry to do.. but i'm not doing it. and i will be so unhappy in a few hours when all i want to do is hang out with my honey and i have to do the wash. but... i'm lazy sometimes. it's been bad for the past few months. really bad.

but ugh... it's 75 degrees and i went for a walk, and now i'm sunbathing on my couch. you just can't let moments like this disappear. one day i will have kids to chase around, or i'll be working or something equally important and/or time-consuming, so i have to enjoy these moments while i have them. i'm sure my friends with kids will agree -- one of my buddies back home has a kiddo that just turned 1 and i'll bet you if she could go back, she'd sunbathe more often. just sayin.

i'll bet my life sounds amazing.. usually i'm cooking or cleaning something, or chasing after my adult-child (husband) and his schedule. but my little joy in the mid-afternoon is the sun shining through my window. and i'm enjoying it.

anyway. i'll regret this sunbathe while i'm doing laundry and cooking and cleaning my house before john comes home from work haha.. so don't get too jealous. 

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*please link to days 14 & 15 posts only, rather than your main blog page. there will be a new linky tomorrow! the main link up is located on the spring forward tab at the top of the page :))

challenge day 17: cravings. (& things)

so, before we get to springing forward, i have to write about this crazy week that we're having. as you may know, john is about to go to a training so he's been mentally preparing for this week. but things have been so weird this week, i think it's calming him down haha. first of all, we had an awesome weekend with our friends... saturday we "just danced" and "michael experienced" our way to 1 am, then after church on sunday we went out for a very... "rowdy" lunch at a local diner. and here comes monday. picture this. 

we're driving. behind a waste management truck (trust me, you don't see where this is headed). we're slowing to turn.. and so is the truck. i'm in the middle of teasing john about something when, from the top of the truck jumps a RAT. to its death. right in front of our eyes! what?! i say it jumped because how is a rat going to fall from the TOP of the truck?! he's not.. it was probably compressing the garbage and he had to get out of there. or he was ratatouille and couldn't take anymore of the eating garbage to survive. whatever it was, it was a suicide jump. (he probably thought he could make it to the grass.. but no dice!) it was a big rat too... very disgusting. it bounced. 

so here's to a great week, you start out by watching a varmint suicide. 
then tuesday was less entertaining for y'all, but he had to spend the day in orange county doing some very boring, very detailed work and didn't get home until almost 6pm! what the heck. i get it.. that's not big deal to y'all. 

then today, i woke up to check the time and our power was out.. so i went back to sleep. i figured my internal clock wouldn't let me down too badly. (well played, right?) well, i was right.. we started getting ready about half an hour later than normal. showers in the dark. he couldn't shave.. makeup done in a dimly, "naturally" lit mirror. etc. etc. etc. and (of course) we couldn't open the garage so for a brief moment i thought we'd be stuck in the house... but unfortunately we're intelligent and he unplugged the device and opened it manually. gah. 

and for dinner tonight? since he got to pick all the meals for the week... rotel. this week can only get cooler. 

also, come back for what i'm loving wednesday in a few minutes or so! :)) now... on to the business.



Something you crave a lot.

source

carbonation! i think i could live without soda mostly if i could find another good carbonated drink. i haven't liked any of the carbonated waters i've tried so far, except one from kroger brand maybe? and we don't have that here. but every time we go out, i order water but have to take a sip of my husband's soda to get my "fix"! we don't buy sodas really because i won't drink a whole can and john usually chooses gatorade or tea. but i do think about it. that's weird, i know.
what are you constantly craving?

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it's never too late to spring clean. click here for more info on our 30-day blog challenge.

*please link to days 14 & 15 posts only, rather than your main blog page. there will be a new linky tomorrow! the main link up is located on the spring forward tab at the top of the page :))

challenge day 16: the eyes of a child

wow! we're half done with this challenge. i've been creeping on you guys who signed up and you all are so funny and challenging and interesting. i'm glad we're doing this. i hope it's making you think about life and where you are today, at least a little :)




what do you miss most about your childhood?

<< source >>

i miss innocence. i miss just living, enjoying baths, coloring, and walks and mommy and daddy time. things are awesome for me right now (mostly) but there is just something sad about growing up. i recently discovered (or realized) that my best friend growing up (who was my cousin) never really liked me. i mean, an adult watching our little lives would have picked that up easily. but where is that sweet joy of not thinking of other's ulterior motives or distrusting them because of past hurt? but i like being an adult. not because i can do whatever i want (although.. that's a cool part of it), but because the first heartbreak, like the first fall, is tragic.

i heard a quote once and i can't remember how it goes exactly, but it's something like this: enjoy your youth because it is youth, but enjoy your old age because it is not. or, as baz luhrmann put it:

enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. oh nevermind; you will not

understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.

but trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and

recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before

you and how fabulous you really looked…

you’re not as fat as you imagine.

everybody's free (to wear sunscreen)

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*please link to days 14 & 15 posts only, rather than your main blog page. there will be a new linky tomorrow! the main link up is located on the spring forward tab at the top of the page :))

challenge day 14 & 15

so, apparently i forgot how to work the "scheduled" post feature, or my inner blonde was operating my body yesterday. (no offense to the blondes, of course, i definitely had more fun yesterday.) either way, here is your twofer for the morning. seems monday won't be so bad after all, yes? a double dose of aleasa? yes.




Day 14: If you had unlimited resources, what would your life look like?

i thought this was supposed to be fun. it actually gave me a tough time because i started wondering how materialistic i really am. too much, like most of us surely, but i realized it was just a very poorly formed question. so i'm sorry about that. but i did have fun thinking about what i would do if we actually didn't have to worry about money.  i'm interested to see everyone else's ideas.  

anyway, first things first. we'd be debt free and buy everything with CASH! i also think we'd spend a lot more time volunteering/donating since we feel so tied to our paychecks that we can never take time away from that. well, that's me mostly.. the Sarge does have a boss named uncle sam.

we'd have two cars. i'd be driving one of these (a mommy mobile, no doubt):

BMW x5

and the Sarge would probably have one of these:

Ford F-150 King Ranch 4X4

so. since i got that out of the way.. i'd like to make it clear that we wouldn't be doing anything else. i love my life. i love my friends, the Sarge loves the military, and we are so blessed. with two cars, work would be less of a bummer because i wouldn't have to be up at dark thirty. we'd probably own a house someone luxurious though, for vacations. Sarge and i recently discussed purchasing a vacation home in the future and letting our church use it for retreats and such. there's a family at our church now that does it and it's a huge blessing for the staff (and we less fortunate who get to live in the lap of luxury when the pastor asks us to take notes at management retreats..........) 


this question got me to thinking about my infertility, too. i don't think i'd get into the higher cost treatments, we'd rather adopt. and we'd probably adopt two or three kids in the next few years if we had the money to do it. babies, maybe, but little kiddos too.


i'd also have a lot more kitchen gadgets. and the Sarge would probably have an unlimited assortment of jeans... we're jeans and t-shirt people haha. and we'd travel a lot more. the good thing about the Sarge's job is that vacation is not hard to come by. so i'd be getting my fill of europe and the east coast, at least or twice a year.


even after all the dreaming, i love my life. there are things that come with having more money, but i'm even more content than i thought! would your lives change much without the worry of money?  






Day 15: Something you don’t leave the house without. Why?


thank you, ALEASA. finally a question that doesn't make me think so hard! geesh. well i never leave without my cell phone. duh. also my military i.d. - more important than my driver's license. so those are obvious. but something i can't leave the house without is my mary kay satin lips! actually, any form of lip moisture-shine but specifically satin lips.

have y'all used this stuff? it's like silk for your lips. i LOVE it. contact your mary kay lady TODAY and get some. you'll thank me. better yet, contact my mary kay lady. her name's pam. she and i went to church together before the military changed things. i love her. 

any way, i never leave without it because i hate chapped, dry lips. i even hate when my lips look anything less than supple and slick haha. that's my inner blonde "real housewife" speaking.

what can't you leave your house without?

JOIN THE PARTY!
it's never too late to spring clean. click here for more info on our 30-day blog challenge.

*please link to days 14 & 15 posts only, rather than your main blog page. there will be a new linky tomorrow! the main link up is located on the spring forward tab at the top of the page :))

challenge day 13: spiritual life

where are you spiritually, in a valley or on a mountain?

it has been said that if you aren't in a storm, you're coming out of one or about to get into one. this is the way our lives happen. my life seems to be in a storm: i'm having a tough time feeling the call in my work, we've just spent about three times the budgeted amount for our car maintenance, i'm battling some serious issues of finding my role in this world, my husband is going through some tough stuff that doesn't seem to make sense, and (like most girls) i'm feeling inadequate and painfully plain... but i'd actually have to say that spiritually, i'm feeling like i'm heading up a mountain! (maybe not quite to the top yet haha!) i feel closer to God and my purpose each day, although i'm not sure how.

it's difficult to explain, but even though the outward signs of spiritual strength are few, the feeling of growing is definitely present. i think that God is growing my faith in him through these small-ish blows. also, i realize that my purpose in this life is not a wife and mother (though that's going to be an important role). God has called us all to further his kingdom, and that can be a very scary thing, especially for someone like me who has been good at a lot but never great at anything. i've come to this conclusion:

the call on my life is something i can't handle.
but if i can do it on my own, it's not God.

and there is peace in that.

<< source. >>

"I'm convinced that God, who began this good work in [me], will carry it through to completion on the day of Christ Jesus."
Phil 1:16

and i leave with what is probably my favorite song right now:

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*please link to today's post, rather than your main blog page. there will be a new linky tomorrow! the main link up is located on the spring forward tab at the top of the page :))

challenge day 12: home.

i'm falling off the wagon as a challenge host, aren't i? well better late than never, as they say!

A photograph of the town you grew up in. What did you love/hate about it?

i grew up in foster city.
(images from fostercity.org. click here to see more pictures!)

if you draw a straight line from the bridge (that's the san mateo bridge) at the top of the picture to the land just south of it, i lived there. right by the san francisco bay!

there was a beautiful lagoon in the middle of the town.

this is my dad, reminiscing at the levee down the street from our old house. we lived one block from the san francisco bay. on clear days, i could see the city skyline. this is where i learned to love the water, moderate climates, and cultural diversity. 

i LOVE foster city. it's a quiet town in san mateo county. it's like... where do the desperate housewives live? it's like that. just a nice little town. i don't know about all the dirty little secrets.. but it's a sweet place like that. i want to raise my kids in a place like this; a suburb. a safe little place where the kids come from well to do families but think they're all hood haha.. when i lived there, i did not like it. well, i didn't like our house. we were "that" family.. our house was like, bright green and it embarrassed me. now, i miss it like crazy. 

where did y'all grow up?

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*please link to today's post, rather than your main blog page. there will be a new linky tomorrow! the main link up is located on the spring forward tab at the top of the page :))

slow cooker french dip

comfortable and meaty. 

 

visit the heritage kitchen now! >>>

challenge day 11: travel

i'm a little late today, again...whoops. but i'm writing this sitting in the honda dealership, where i'll be for the next 3 hours (at the very least). the joys of having one car! y'all email me and keep me company! :)

The greatest vacation or trip you've ever had.

israel. hands down.

i love history and i love jesus. put the two into one trip and i'm sold. i learned so so so much on this trip and i'll never forget it. and i can't wait to go back! i wrote about this trip in a blog challenge of old, so here are a few different pictures.

the red sea... so pretty!

the most fun band in the ancient town of jerash playing yankee doodle... random!

petra -- on of my favorites!

our crazy tour guide in jordan, samir. he was ridiculous. keep in mind, we were a christian studies group... he kept telling all these off color jokes lol... and making jabs at the pope. i don't know. he was cracking me and the friends up :)

hangin' out in a cave-grave (petra is awesome but they're all tombs!)

one of my favorite parts about this trip was that i got to see all kinds of different christians. there are much more ritualistic variations of our faith around the world. here is supposedly the preparation stone where they wrapped jesus' body and prepared it for the tomb. i think it's pretty much known that these "special places" are places and things of legend, but it's interesting to think that people worship so differently than american christians do (or even southern christians).

i put my feet in the jordan river. the place around where they think jesus was baptized was not accessible by our israeli tour guides.

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*please link to today's post, rather than your main blog page. there will be a new linky tomorrow! the main link up is located on the spring forward tab at the top of the page :))

challenge day 10: pampered?

What is your favorite way to pamper yourself?

 

beauty rest! i believe this is all i have to say.

no seriously. i love sleeping and i love being alone, whether i'm reading a good book, window shopping, or indulging in fine things for my home. i also like to paint my toenails to feel pretty, or clean up.. there's nothing better than being lazy in a CLEAN house.

 

 image from hot decals

JOIN THE PARTY!
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*please link to today's post, rather than your main blog page. there will be a new linky tomorrow! the main link up is located on the spring forward tab at the top of the page :))

top 2 dream rooms

i almost forgot it was tuesday! of course, i have to link up with our friends over at the undomestic momma for top two tuesday. today it's my top dream rooms.

the first one is of course an amazing entertaining kitchen, where i could cook and store every gadget and have plenty of room for all the friends.

and then i would love a home office for scentsy and crafting... preferably furnished by pottery barn of course!

what are y'all dream homes? it's not too late to go link up so head on over there! see y'all tomorrow for more springing forward :)

challenge day 9: this IS significant.

A photo of your last significant purchase. Did it satisfy a need or a want?

i'm so glad you asked. so, pretty much anything over $75 is a significant purchase for us. yesterday, it would have been my nook. but today i got something that may be just a tad more useful for our household:

this is step one(-ish) of project pantry: the 10-piece oxo pop set. there are a few more pieces that i want to get to complete it before i'll be satisfied, but aren't they gorgeous? haha... i love organization. as far as want v. need, i'm going to go ahead and take the easy way out and say both. hear me out! they have air tight seals which will ensure that what i buy stays fresh and useable (and not thrown away from sitting in the dark recesses of the pantry. also, a more organized pantry means more effective weekly shopping.. which means less waste essentially (since i err on the side of too much rather than too little... of course). that's the need part. but did it have to cost $100? uh no.

but i LOVE it. soon my pantry will be bangin'.

JOIN THE PARTY!
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*please link to today's post, rather than your main blog page. there will be a new linky tomorrow! the main link up is located on the spring forward tab at the top of the page :))

challenge day 8: advice

The best advice you've ever received.

i never really thought about this question until i had to answer it. i suppose the answer would have to be that when you're starting to feel overwhelmed by the weight of the world, just go to sleep! i know that's super lame but it's true. this is the passage that i go to whenever i am weighed down by the weight of the world:

I have been deprived of peace; 

   I have forgotten what prosperity is. 

So I say, “My splendor is gone 
   and all that I had hoped from the LORD.”

I remember my affliction and my wandering, 
   the bitterness and the gall. 

I well remember them, 
   and my soul is downcast within me. 
Yet this I call to mind 

   and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, 

   for his compassions never fail. 

They are new every morning; 

   great is your faithfulness. 

I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; 

   therefore I will wait for him.”

The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, 
   to the one who seeks him; 

it is good to wait quietly 

   for the salvation of the LORD. 

JOIN THE PARTY!
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*please link to today's post, rather than your main blog page. there will be a new linky tomorrow! the main link up is located on the spring forward tab at the top of the page :))

challenge day 7: wedded bliss

sorry i'm posting a little "late" today. i went to church on saturday this week to see our small group friends get baptized. then we went to eat, and had a fun night at carin's. i enjoyed saturday service. it was really nice, and i like having sunday to hang out with sergeant j, even though he's been in a rather foul mood. he's okay today though. :] 

anyway, sunday is my finish chores and meal planning day. do your days have names? mine do. just like a paycheck that is spent before you have it.. my days are pre-spent. but i actually find comfort in that. AND, some of my sweet friends are now in driving distance from me and i'm :extremely: happy about that. so it's been an eventful weekend and seems it will be a super fun week too. so on to the challenge.
 

tell us about your wedding or dream wedding.

i'm apologizing in advance for all the pics. it's hard to pick favorites!

this is what i wanted our wedding party to look like. before i was even engaged (we were planning on it.. kind of lol) i played around on the david's bridal website. i originally wanted a spring wedding and had everyone in browns and golds/yellows, but when i discovered that i'd be getting a ring quite earlier than expected, i set on december. so of course, i embraced the winter feel. and this is what we ended up looking like.....

challenge day 6: bff.. or not

tell us about your best friend when you were 16, and where you two stand today.

so.

when i was 16, i had two bffs and we went everywhere and did everything together. we'll call them harry and larry. harry and larry and i were inseparable and just alike and loved each other like sisters. but i was a little wild in high school -- i hadn't quite figured out who i was and i sort of blew around with the wind, drifting around life until something got in my way and i'd have to drift in a slightly different direction. harry and larry were more confident in their personalities and lives and "selves" and i think that was part of the reason that moe (me) drifted toward them.

then came "nate". he was a boyfriend of mine and, i'll be honest, our relationship was a little ridiculous. well, harry and larry, being the great friends that they were, embraced nate (okay, all the boys names are getting weird, but follow me). and he embraced them. very well. nate ended up being a jerk, and i had to travel a long, hard road to find that out. literally. like. literally.

anyway, things were never quite the same with me, and definitely not with harry and larry and me. in fact, i got myself into a spot of trouble that harry and larry just happened to help me find.

and harry and larry let it happen to me alone.

and proceeded to tell me everything wrong with me. and some of what they said was right. i was not a great friend to them. we were not great friends to one another. i didn't know who i was, and certainly they could not know me if i didn't know myself. i did foolish things, more foolish than most teenagers even. i was thoughtless and careless and quite selfish, too.

and where are we today, you ask? well. harry and larry are around. we've found each other thanks to facebook. i've looked for years and years for them, to let go of a burden of disloyalty i have carried around for a long time. i often have felt we could still be friends, even today, but for being foolish young people. harry and larry may or may not be close today, but harry and larry and me are very, very distant and different and done.

i hope this wasn't too confusing lol. you will hear more about harry and larry soon. stay tuned. why would i include a question like this?! i hope y'all stories are much more uplifting than mine.

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*please link to today's post, rather than your main blog page. there will be a new linky tomorrow! the main link up is located on the spring forward tab at the top of the page :))

5QF

i'm linking up with mama m. again this week for five question friday. just like i love wednesday, i love friday. i get two fridays in a row with my job, but the second one (the actual friday) is the best. tonight, sergeant j and i are watching grown ups and couples retreat and having italian sammy and soup night :) i can't wait to hang out with my hunk-a burnin' love! (can you tell i just left mama m.'s blog? haha)

challenge day 5: without you.

something you could definitely live without.


haha... well, i could live without hair growing on my legs every time i shivered. and milk, but not cheese. and toenails that have to be clipped, and snoring and sinus problems and migraines. i could totally live without insurance companies robbing my family and (don't shoot me) obamacare. and i could live without knowing about calories (that's the rudest discovery of my adult life). i could live without ridiculous people getting rich from doing ridiculous things...

(ahem johnnyknoxvillekanyewestlabronjamesoprah-ok-she-doesn't-do-ridiculous-things-exaclty-but-i-can't-stand-her-anyway cough cough)

new math

and especially ignorance. or whatever it is that makes people think that the world is about them. i mean, i'm all about being firm in your beliefs and opinions, but the whole point is to deal with one another in love. just because you and i don't agree doesn't mean we don't like each other. we don't like each other because you're hateful haha... but seriously. nothing gets under my skin more than someone who has an opinion and holds it, self-righteously, above anyone else's intelligence. rude. those kinds of people who feel that their time or safety or voices are all more important than anyone else's (for example, the people who drive like maniacs and put all our lives in danger).

as marybeth maybel would say: "A wise man once said, try not to get too attached to a hypothesis because its yers." (if you don't play video games, you can ignore that!)

anyway, lots of things irk me but hey, it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round. and i'm glad God didn't make everyone like me.. nothing would ever get done! (except the world would be full of sweet blogs :] haha )

JOIN THE PARTY!
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*please link to today's post, rather than your main blog page. there will be a new linky tomorrow! the main link up is located on the spring forward tab at the top of the page :))