7 Quick Takes {7} and Wedding Photos!

(If you just want to see the Wedding Photos, scroll to #7)

1. I had a heart attack thirty minutes ago when I went to wash my apple and realized only my wedding band was on my finger. No engagement ring. You know the expensive one with the big diamond?! Never has this happened to me and I freaked. (I have been wearing my rings on my pinky finger for the last week or so, because with the humidity my fingers swell up first thing in the morning and I can't put my rings on my ring finger.) I now understand the saying of "my knees were weak" because they were. They were shaking and my heart was racing and I was praying that I would find it. I dropped my apple on the counter, looked in my lunch bag that I had just set in the fridge, and then raced back to my desk where my ring was sitting right inside of my work bag where it had fallen off probably 3 minutes before. Thank you Jesus! 

You can see why I was freaking out. Gorgeousness.  

2. Seth is getting closer to being done working out of state and I can't wait for him to move home. After being in a relationship for almost 12 1/2 years this will be the first time we live together for more than a weekend at a time. Things might get interesting:)

3. I finished Season 3 of Downton Abbey so I will probably shut up about it for a while but holy bananas! They definitely ended Season 3 with a cliffhanger and I googled and Season 4 doesn't even air until January 2014! Is that a joke?!!! Why so long??? Okay, I'm done now. 

4. I don't know what Google Reader is but apparently it's going away because every blog I read is freaking out about it. Apparently BlogLovin is the new cool thing to have though so I guess that's where you can find me. Or using the reader that's in blogger since it's so conveniently located. 

5. I'm considering switching from Blogger to Wordpress but I don't know if I want to go for it or not. I have noticed that a lot of blogs I read are using Wordpress but then I stumble on a bigger blog and they are still using Blogger. Ugh. I don't know what to do. Feel free to argue your case for either in the comments section because I'm sick of researching. 

6. Yesterday morning I wake up this adorable innocence outside my window.

Precious, I know. 

I arrive home to this lovely un-innocent-ness in my mail box. Face palm. 

This isn't the first time we have had a note from a neighbor in our mailbox. 

Lucky for us our neighbors are all great and this little old lady just wanted to tell me that, there has been more traffic on our road lately, and, she is worried about our dog crossing the road and getting hit by a car. She was sweet as could be and didn't care about the old muddy boot or shoe and I think she just wants a friend. After talking to her on the phone for over 30 minutes I have promised to come visit her at some point. And Gunnar was locked in his pen today:(

7. Apparently people enjoyed my engagement photos last week because they have been pinned quite a few times. Because of the enthusiasm I decided to give you some wedding photos for your viewing pleasure this week! (and because I just love to look at them:)

The guys.

My gals.  

The most gorgeous flowers ever. 

My groom. 

LOVE our smiles in this picture. 

:)

Same church my Grandparents got married in over 60 years ago. 

The farm my mom grew up on.

All wedding photos taken by Leigh Miller Photography. She is amazing talented and so sweet:)

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary.

How to be more productive

I've figured out how to make your life more productive and I'm sharing the secret!

Start a blog. 

Yep, that's all you have to do. (Well you have to write in it too, obviously.)

Seriously, since I have started blogging, my life has gotten way more productive. Everytime I see, do, or think something, I think to myself, "hmm, I wonder if this would make a good blog post?" or "wow, this would make a good blog post." 

Is that pathetic? Is that what all bloggers do? As I've said, I'm new to the blog world, but I can't help but think that I'm not the only one thinking these thoughts. 

I also don't think I'm the only one that does things around my house or in my life so that I have good blogging material. Honestly, if I wasn't productive my life blog would look something like this. 

Woke up.

Went to work.

Came home.

Watched tv Downton Abbey.

Went to bed. 

As wonderful a blog as that would make, I like to think that my 3 readers deserve a little more. 

So now that blogging has entered my life... 

I craft.

Here

I bake. 

Here

Sometimes decorate or DIY some type of upcycled randomness. 

Here

I look for bargains. 

Here

I garden. 

Here

I clean. 

This room is in the process of being cleaned/organized. Here

I organize. (See above)

And, I document. (See above)

That's right, I take pictures of anything and everything that I'm doing, eating, visiting. Then, when I'm inspired to post, I have some lovely little photos to go right around with the writings. 

I would like to point out that I did (and still do) all the things listed above before blogging. And, I don't just do those things because I have a blog. However, I do some of the items more frequently than I use to. I don't procrastinate nearly as much and I get excited about doing some of the items that I might otherwise dread. Overall, blogging has, so far, been a positive influence in my life and I hope the productiveness continues. 

Since my husband benefits from some of the items above, I would say that he enjoys my productive blog life as well:) 

xoxo,

Julie

The Most Exciting Weekend EVER

It's Monday and my little brain is not in the mood to function today. It's cloudy and rainy outside and I really want to just crawl back in bed and nap all day. Maybe mix in a few more Downton Abbey episodes.

Instead, I'm stuck at work, patiently waiting for 5 o'clock.

Since I'm feeling such a lack of inspiration today I will bore EXCITE you with my weekend happenings.

Friday evening I watched a coach pitch baseball game of a little boy I used to babysit. He's 8 and adorable and turns out he's a pretty good little first baseman.

Went home to be my normal exciting self and make popcorn for dinner which I ate with my butt planted firmly in it's dented couch cushion position while watching approximately 3 episodes of Downton Abbey. Thrilling, I know.

Slept in on Saturday instead of spending money thrifting at garage sales. I'm sure my husband was proud.

Decided that Dad's are absolutely impossible to shop for because if they want it, or need it, they buy it. Since the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, I baked pies. Apple pies actually. With homemade crust. I know what you're thinking...woah there Betty Crocker, don't hurt yourself. I promise you I didn't. Unless you count the fact that I didn't get to eat the pies. That hurt.

My lovely father wanted to go out to eat Saturday night for Father's Day so that's what we did. He got to choose the place so obviously he chose Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Who am I to argue with a greasy cheeseburger and brown paper bags filled with hot fries? If you have never eaten  at one of these fine establishments I encourage you to jump on it. Oh, and share the fries. I promise, you don't need two unless you want a career as a contestant on The Biggest Loser.

Big Bob loved his pie. Well, I think, he hadn't tasted it yet when we left.

All 6'7" of Big Bob and me.

My little brother Joe wanted in on the picture taking action.

As I previously mentioned, I live a life of excitement so I did the most exciting thing I could think of after dinner. Went home, put on pj's, and watched Downton Abbey.

Gunnar prefers licking my ankle to watching DA.
(I promise my ankles aren't as huge as they appear in this pic.)

Are you sensing a theme? If not, let me help you. I'm boring exciting and I watch a lot of tv, especially Downton Abbey.

Sunday morning I drug myself from bed to go to church where I set with my grandparents. I would like to point out here that I always set with my grandparents which I think makes me the favorite grandchild. Or at least one of two favorites. The other one is little and cute and the youngest of all 34 of us grandkids (yep, 34) so I feel like he has a little bit of an edge but he'll grow out of the little and cute stage so I'm not worried.

After church I delivered my second homemade-pie-crusted pie to my Stepdad, Dave. Him and my mom got married when I was 8 and I was more than lucky to have this guy in my life. He was busy doing some electrical work for a family friend so we didn't get to hang out much but we are going to go to dinner next weekend when Seth's in town so it's all good.

Hung out with one of my bff's/cousins, Jacqueline, and her family for awhile and perused the aisles of Target.

Made it home in time to lay on my back deck to soak up some sun, for about 3 minutes, before I was drenched in sweat. Thank you Kansas humidity. Decided, I'm going to be the weirdo that goes to the pool on my own so that's what I did. And it was lovely. Nice and hot but a little bit breezy and cool from the water. Took a mini nap and read some magazines. That, right there, is summer my friends.

Pure perfection.

At this point it's 7:00pm on Sunday and I have done absolutely zero productive things so I decided to go for a run. With my dog. While I can't say that Gunnar is an amazing running partner, he is way better to take when off a leash than when he is on a leash. Something to work on I suppose.

Wrapped up the weekend with a frozen, it's not delivery, it's Digiorno pizza, some Kardashians and Downton Abbey.

And there you have it folks. Too much excitement to handle. Maybe I should have warned you at the beginning.


Linking up with Sami's Weekend Shenanigans.

7 Quick Takes {6} (and a few past engagement photos!)

1. It's the weekend. Ohhh YEAH! Let's just say I'm super pumped for the weekend. I really have no idea why I'm this excited because I have no big plans but I'm just excited. Oh, and Downton Abbey Season 3 came in, sooooo... it's safe to say this will most likely be an unproductive weekend:)

No, I don't live in Ottawa, inter-library loan is a lovely thing:)

2. How cute is my littlest (age, not size) brother? I mean seriously I just love that boy (even when he's a butt head). 

He's in the army and currently stationed at Ft. Hood right now so I don't get to see him much. 

Super old, really bad photo of both of us from the day before his bootcamp graduation in 2009.
It's hard to take updated photos when I never get to see him:(

3. There are approximately 7, give or take 12, craft projects cluttering up my house and garage right now. I should be ashamed, but I'm not. 

4. I recently introduced my mom to blogs (and the copy/paste feature) and obviously she hasn't read many because she thinks I'm just HILARIOUS. To prove that my hilarious-ness is a figment of her imagination I sent her over to read Grace's blog Camp Patton. That women is truly hilarious. Oh, and Hi Mom!! 

5. Does anyone else ever get overwhelmed by all the things they want/need to do that they end up doing none of them? Yep, I have that problem and I have it bad. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that my list of favorite tv shoes is longer than my list of to-do's, right? That's what I thought. 

6. This Pinterest chicken recipe is so good that I have made it twice this week. Twice in the past 3 days really. Go. Make it. Enjoy. You're welcome. (p.s. use less vinegar)

Who needs a side dish when you have chicken this good?

7. It's so hard to think up a #7 and I have no idea why since I have a million ideas but they all seem lame. So, I leave you with this...avoid poison ivy. It sucks and is itchy:( If you insist on getting poison ivy, I advise this: Scrub with a loofah or something similar to open up the little bubbles of poison and wash it with Dawn dish soap to get the oils out of your skin. While I'm not a doctor I was given this information from a pharmacist once, so I trust it, but you don't have to. It will save you from clawing the skin of your arms and legs though. Fortunately I have only gotten it twice but the first time was during engagement photos (2nd time right now hence the reason for this #7) so it was totally worth it:)

Most likely poison ivy culprit right here. 

See? Totally worth it! (Photographer here)

Love, Peace, and Chicken Grease!

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary. 

7 Quick Takes (5)

1. Super excited about a co-host post (is that a thing) I'm doing with my bloggy friend Kala at My Breezy Room next week. I should probably make sure I get the project done this weekend though. Cryptic enough for ya?! Oh and you should probably check out her most recent furniture transformation. It's legit. 

2. My eyelids feel like they weigh 10,000lbs right now. I'm not sure though if it's because I'm tired, which I am, or darn allergies. I love spring/summer but I'm not loving the allergies this year. I literally wake up every morning with a tickle in my nose and sneeze. Over it already. 

3. The library has become my new best friend. Well as best of friends as inanimate things can be anyways. I don't know why I think this is so cool all the sudden. Maybe it's because I'm just used to always having to pay for things at this point in my life. I just checked out a few more audio books and I was getting ready to pull out my wallet to pay when it hit me! No ma'm, your money's no good here (unless you return the goods late that is.) Yep, I'm a nerd. 

via

4. In the past 5 days my dog has killed a total of 5(!!!) baby bunnies:( It is really sad, but at the same time, I guess I'm glad they aren't stealing food from my garden. Gunnar is just SO proud of himself but I wish he would catch the darn birds eating my strawberries instead.

5. Today I found a recipe for Cotton Candy Cake Cookies from Mama Miss and I almost peed my pants with excitement. Okay not really but you get the picture. I'm what you might call mildly obsessed with cotton candy ever since I was little. Some people have signature drinks or a carving station at their weddings, I had a cotton candy station. (And, cotton candy taffy, stick candy and rock candy). Complete with a sign I hand painted. Love the stuff! 

this may or may not be hanging in my house now...

6. Since the person who has checked out the third season of Downton Abbey from the library obviously doesn't have the dedication that I have, and therefor hasn't returned it yet, I have had to start a new series while I wait. Impatiently. I had heard that if you like Downton Abbey you will probably enjoy Call the Midwife. They were right. I do enjoy it. I'm about four episodes in and it is quite good. I still want the DA though. Hurry up you under-ambitious tv show watcher that's hogging the only copy. 

7. In approximately 2. 5 hours I get to see my husband again. That will last approximately 42 hours before I don't get to see him again. And then I will wait another 290 hours (approx) before I get to see him again. This whole work out of town biz is getting OLD. As are we...

circa 2006 at the KC Plaza

Happy friday lovely people!

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary.

I Think...

...my dog was trying to dislocate my shoulder on our walk yesterday.

...allergies are the most ridiculously dumb thing in the world.

...whoever has season 3 of Downton Abbey needs to return it to the library stat. 

...I'm getting a little better at eating healthy.

...there is enough hair (mine) in my vacuum to make a wig. Gross, I know. 

...something died somewhere in, or around, my basement. It smells. 

...only getting to see my husband two weekends a month is getting old.

...traveling is the best way to spend my money. 

...my "to do" list will never get done.

...laundry is the best household chore. 

...I'm really in the mood to bake something. 

...I have an obsession with any and all paper products. 

..."I should have been a teacher" every year when summer arrives.

...people that walk super slow are annoying. 

...it's time for breakfast.

XOXO

7 Quick Takes (4)

1. At 5:30 a.m. this morning my alarm system blared like someone was trying to break into a bank. As I lept from my bed (with a heart attack) I was sure someone was trying to break into my house. I grabbed my phone and started stumbling down the steps turning on all the lights as I went. While tripping over my half asleep self I had a vague thought that I had no way to defend myself if it was a burglar. Apparently I was going to be the girl that runs back upstairs and hides in the shower like in every horror movie you've ever seen. Fortunately, the torrential downpour outside had just happened to splash water all over the flood sensor in my basement, tripping the alarm. Thank goodness, I wasn't going to be murdered and my basement wasn't really flooding. On the unfortunate side, we live in the country surrounded by fields, with field mice (bleh). I guess one of them must have eaten the poison in the basement and he decided to die right in the middle of my carpeted basement tv room. Disgusting! I will save you the dead mouse photo. 

2. With the humidity that has been in the air lately my hair has been a little bit cray cray. All the wispy pieces of hair right around my face like to frizz out into a lions mane that I assure you is beautiful. I really need to remember to snap a photo of this sometime because you probably have to see it to believe it. Anywho...I decided that maybe I should attempt to find some sort of taming product. Tame my mane...like taming a lion...get it?! Anyone have any good suggestions? The current hair products I own consist of shampoo and conditioner. The end. That's it. Not even an old can of Aquanet. Do people still use that? So suggestions would be appreciated and my hair is already really thick and heavy so let's avoid the heavy hair products. Mkay? Mkay!

Sorta like this only not red.
via

3. One of the new daily rituals in my house is pulling ticks of my dog. What has happened to my life?! A year ago I was revolted by the idea of touching a tick on my dog and now I make him sit still every night for 20 minutes so I can pull them off of him because I'm afraid there going to suck all his blood. We use tick meds every month but they still seem to find, and cling to him like Bella to Edward Cullen. I have decided that even though the tick meds say they are waterproof what they really mean is....if your dog steps in a tiny puddle they are waterproof... not... swim across the pond 40bajillion times a day waterproof. 

The things I do for this little puppy...

4. I started watching Downton Abbey a couple weeks ago on Netflix and am now in the middle of Season 2 that I checked out from my local library. Why did nobody insist I watch this show earlier? It's ridiculously addictive with all sorts of drama and scandal that seems even more dramatic and scandalous since it takes place in the early 1900s. I totally love this show and am insisting that you watch it. Plus everyone has lovely accents and they say things like jumpah (jumper). Watch it now.  

via

5. I talked to Seth about having a garage sale this weekend and he suggested I go garage sale shopping instead. Who am I to argue with a husband who wants me to shop? I will have to be sure to drag my butt out of bed early Saturday morning so I don't miss all the good bargains. 

6. It boggles my mind how many people feel like it's okay to ask you when you are going to have kids. Close family and friends, sure I'm fine with them asking, but all the people you sorta know, talk to at work because you have to? NO. Don't ask. It's none of your business. Usually, I'm just a smart ass and tell them we'll have kids when they want to pay my husband to move back into the state. I know we dated forever before getting married but we have yet to live under the same roof for more than a couple days at a time. Plus, every time they ask, I always wonder, "what if we had been trying to get pregnant and can't?" It's not true for us (at this point anyway) but I know it's true for lots of other couples. It's gotta be hard for those couples who are wanting nothing more than a baby and people ask constantly when they are going to have one. Take a hint people and quit asking unless you know that the person is fine with it. 

To be completely honest, this question doesn't bother me personally a whole lot, I just feel like it is really rude. Sort of like asking someone how there sex life is. None of your biz-nass!

7. I'm currently obsessed with listening to audiobooks. I feel like I never have time to just sit down and read so I've been listening to books in my car and I seriously love them. Right now I'm listening to Jodi Picoult's, Handle With Care. It's fabulous and I love the readers. The only downfall to audiobooks is that I seriously get angry when people call me while I'm driving now. First world problems I guess. 

Have a stupendous weekend! Not to be confused with a stupid weekend which is probably what you'll have if you were confused;)

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary.