7 Quick Takes {12}

1. In 15, count them, 15 days, I will be setting sail on a boat more glorious than the Titanic. Icebergs not included, praise the lord. The amount of fun and sun and food to be had is about to get crazy. Don't be surprised if I return as an unrecognizable tanned whale of a human being.

Before cruise Julie

After cruise Julie

2. Today's my brother Joe's birthday. He's 25, which is a big deal considering almost seven years ago we thought he might not live another hour, much less long enough to see another birthday. Someday I will get around to writing his story but for now you can watch a video about him on youtube. Happy Birthday little brother that doesn't read my blog so he will never see this!

3. In my quest to be a little healthier (who am I kidding? did you see yesterday's post?) I've decided to quit drinking pop. I'm already hating life. Please explain to me how that sugary sweet little can of carbonated heaven can sink it's extra sharp nails into my taste buds and make me want to drown myself in corn syrup. Why is this so hard?!!! 

4. All my dreams have come true! Sophia Grace is going to be in a movie! Why has this taken so long?? If you don't know who Sophia Grace is you should google her and watch every single video she is in 1000 times. NOW. I just want to "honey I shrunk the kids" this girl and put her in my pocket. 

Girl after my heart right there. 

5. Do normal people get excited about going grocery shopping or is it just me? I had to stop into the store last night to pick up some puppy food (how does he eat SO MUCH?!) and I just wanted to buy ALL THE THINGS! All the pretty packaging and salty, sweet, and savory things just calling my name. Sale things anyway. I eat too much to not shop the sales. My store had so many good sales and I just wanted to buy them all and spend zero dollars. I'm convinced I was 500lbs in a previous life (again, see yesterday's post). Lets hope those pounds stay in that life. 

6. I think I'm sick. My DVR arrived on Wednesday and I installed it Wednesday night. Pretty sure the Dish customer service guy wanted to kiss my feet because I was nice to him. I've been there buddy. (Side Note: Don't be mean to CS people. They hate their job more than you hate them.) Anywho...it's Friday and I have yet to record a show. Ummm...wtf. I did use the pause feature so I guess I'm not a total DVR failure.  

7. To my mom. Since I know you read this, this is your warning. If you ever want to see them again, you should probably hide the new Milky Way bites that you have front row center in your freezer. And that doesn't mean putting them in the garage freezer. I know your hiding place and you need new ones. Also, I have no self control. You're welcome in advance. #fatkid

Linking up with Conversion Diaries:)

Love ya like a fat kid loves cake my little blog readers!

If You Really Knew Me

You'd know that I occasionally open a can of chocolate frosting just so I can eat it from a spoon. Or a bag of chocolate chips.

You'd know I'm almost always cold. The people I work with laugh at me because I always have on a hoodie. 

You'd know that I make lists constantly. It helps me sleep at night because I know I won't forget anything since it's written down.

You'd know I'm jealous of large families and wish I could have more siblings. Love the two I've got though.

You'd know my husband is the one and only guy I have ever dated or kissed. Sounds a little crazy, I know, but I think I just got lucky.

You'd know I am the laziest person in the world when it comes to taking off chipped nail polish. 3 weeks right now.

Embarrassing..

You'd know I rarely wear make up. I'm talking maybe a few times a month. 

You'd know I'm super indecisive and always terrified of making the wrong choices. 

You'd know I prefer tennis shoes to any other type of shoe. Ever. 

You'd know I despise waking up early for any reason besides vacations or black friday shopping.

You'd know I have an obsession with pretty paper and design products. Notecards, notebooks, pretty books, gift bags, tags. Anything really. I have stacks and drawers full of it. 

You'd know I wish I was a fitness junkie but love my junk foods too much.

You'd know that I'm the first person emailed at work when somebody brings in food. Surprised? 

You'd know that I have a huge fear of failure and it causes me to never take chances. Trying to work on this though. 

You'd know that while I like to go out, I'm definitely a homebody. 

You'd know I have surprised myself by still posting to this blog several months later!

Do you know me? What else do people need to know about me?

Growing Up Sucks

Some days being a grown up sucks. Big time. I'd really love it if Tink could swing by and sprinkle me with pixie dust so I could fly off off and away to a happy little place called Neverland. You know, the place where you never have to grow up? The place were responsibilities are far far away and your worst day consists of sitting on rocks, soaking up the sun, mermaid style? 

Since I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon lets have a little bitch fest so that we can all feel better that we're not alone. Maybe then we can move on with our shitty grown up lives. 

And so I introduce...

Reason #1 - Buying gas

Remember growing up and your parents would occasionally slip you $20 for gas? I appreciated this a lot back in the day but let's just say I would appreciate it even more now that gas is almost $60 a tank. In a couple more years it will cost more for the gas to get me to work than what I make while I'm there. 

Reason #2 - People at work making you look bad

You know when someone screws something up at work and it makes you look bad? You get pissed and can't even say anything because you know you will sound like a 2 year old pointing fingers saying "he did it!" Yeah, I hate that. 

Reason #3 - All your bills are due within 7 days of each other

How the hell does this happen? It's like all the bad karma in the world got together and decided to purge your bank account every month. So depressing. 

Reason #4 - You have to buy boring things

Sometimes you even get excited about buying boring things. Like a mattress. I promise you I will never get excited about buying tires or toilet paper though.

Reason #5 - Making decisions

This is why people hate change. Change requires decisions and we just don't like to make them. It's back to the ole "why fix what's not broke" scenario. When you make changes you have to make decisions and there's too freakin many! Don't believe me? Ask your husband/boyfriend/significant other what they want for dinner!

Happy Hump Day Sassypants!

How to Make Pickles

Well I did it. I made my first batch of canned pickles last night and they look pretty darn good. I was actually pretty surprised at the easiness of the whole process. 

I got the recipe from my cousin, Theresa. 

Ingredients:

Dill Seed - 1 tsp per pint jar (2 tsp for quart jar)

Garlic - 1 clover per pint jar (2 cloves for quart jar)

Cucumbers - Enough to fill your jars - I used the pickling cucumbers from my garden.

Brine:

2 cups vinegar

4 cups water

3 TBSP Pickling Salt

(I doubled all of this because I was making 8 pints.)

Put 1 tsp of dill seed and 1 clove of garlic in each pint jar. Then fill with cucumbers. They can be sliced, speared or whole. However, you prefer really.

For the Brine you just boil the vinegar, water and pickling salt for a few minutes and then pour it over the cucumbers, in the jars, and seal the jars. 

Lastly, put the jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove (carefully) and let cool. Make sure all your lids seal and then store for 2 weeks before opening so the flavors can really marinate. 

For a spicier version just slice a jalepeno in half and add it to a jar before adding the brine. 

Now I just have to be patient and wait the two weeks before I can open and test them out! I will let you know when I do:)

Maybe I should get pregnant now that we have a pickle surplus??

Let me know if you have any questions about any of this or the canning process itself. I promise it's a lot easier than it sounds:)

Married Life in a Nutshell

I swear yesterday was Monday. 

Whatevs. 

I'm pretty sure I lead one of the most boring blog lives ever. I mean seriously, lets recap.

I left work a little early Friday and went home to help the husband finish building a tool bench in his shop. Turns out I'm not too terrible with a screw gun...is that what it's called? I asked him to take a picture of me, for blog purposes obviously, and a got a look that basically said "you are a weirdo". So, you will just have to take my word with no visual evidence that I can screw screws. (That's what she said.)

Since I didn't whine too much Seth suggested we go out to eat. Obviously, I never say no to eating out (or food in general) so we hit up the fanciest place we could think of... Buffalo Wild Wings. I gorged myself on fried food and boneless wings while watching the Royals game. Then we hit up the Home Depot for more screws. Damn the excitingness of this post is over the top. Buckle your seat belts people this is what married life is all about!

Saturday was a fun filled day of meeting with our tax guy, yay IRS audit! Signing paperwork, mailing paperwork. Drop off at the Salvation Army and consignment store. Groceries, prescription pickup and visit to the bank. Is it possible to fit more un-fun errands in one day?? But wait, there's more! I got to follow that up with cleaning out the garage while Seth built more shelves. Better keep that green-eyed monster in check people. Jealousy is vicious!

Garages look so much cleaner when you carry
everything out of them and set it in the driveway.

It was only 9pm when we decided to grill out since we were both starving. Cheeseburgers, potatoes and onions, and corn on the cob. Not gonna lie, it was pretty darn good. Followed up our food with a trip to Sonic for ice cream. Nevermind that my hair was like a lion and I had dirt smudged all over me. I think we made it about 20 minutes into the movie I rented before we both fell asleep. 

Best Friends ForEvah!

Good thing the photos blurry so you can't see how muddy I am. 

Spoiled puppy with his ice cream.

After church Sunday we headed to the city to hit up Nebraska Furniture Mart to buy a mattress! Wow, it's depressing to think that we are excited about buying a mattress. In my book, mattress shopping ranks right up there with tires and trash bags. BORING. I managed to drive Seth completely crazy when I found bad reviews online about the mattress we picked out. So, we spent an hour and a half driving to another store to check out their mattresses only to return and buy the same one we had previously picked out. Time will tell I guess. 

That exciting adventure was followed up with a nap, another late dinner and the movie we failed to finish the night before. 

And that my friends is what married life is all about! 

Act like our dog child isn't pretty. 

Linking up with Sami's Shenanigans. 

7 Quick Takes {11}

Zippety-do-da it's F-F-F-Friday again!

Which means, you can find me linking up over at Jens. 

1. I always get so ridiculously excited for Friday's and I don't even care. It's also August which just happens to mean it's my Birthday month!! Hopefully I don't get too annoying because my Birthday isn't until the 31st so I get to drag it out for the whole month. Seth just loves it when I do that:)

2.You know what else this lovely little month happens to bring? A vacation! And boy do I need it. Seriously, it has been way too long. I'm considering trying to talk Seth into moving to Europe so we can get 6 weeks of vacay like they do over there. Somehow I don't think this will be quite as easy as the DVR was. Anyway, one week in the beautiful Caribbean should tide me over for a couple months. 

3. I'm making pickles this weekend! Canning them that is. I've been stockpiling all of my little pickling cucumbers for the past week and I'm hoping they turn out okay. Canning just makes me feel like a little Betty Crocker. 

4. I have what I like to call a Love-Hate relationship with paying bills. I hate paying bills like water and electric because I know they are never going to go away. Ever. I do love that they are relatively small bills though in the grand scheme of things. I hate paying bills like my car payment, Seth's student loans and the house payment because these are much larger bills to pay. However, I do love knowing that someday these bills will be paid off and we won't have to pay them again. Plus what's not to love about transportation, education and home sweet home? #AmericanDream

5. Every year, since graduating, I can't help but suppress the smothering feeling of wanting to go back to school every time the back to school supplies hits the shelves. I seriously love and always loved school. Those beautifully sharpened pencils, stark white notebook pages and un-chewed pen caps get me Every. Single. Time. Maybe someday I'll go back for a teaching degree so I can stay in school the rest of my life while bringing home a paycheck. Enjoy it while you can kids. Before you know it you will be wishing for nap times and dreaming of the day when your biggest decision was the slide or swing-set. 

Stay in school, you fool.

6. I think I've previously mentioned that my mom is a nanny for a little one year old girl named Charlotte. She is pretty much adorable as can be and my mom texts me a photo just about every day of Charlotte's OOTD. Let's just say this girl has some seriously cute clothes. Since she's not mine I don't want to post photos of her but trust me. Anyways... here's part of the text convo from my mom that makes me smile:)

7. I stopped by my Grandma's yesterday during lunch. Her garden tomatoes haven't turned red yet so I dropped off some of mine for her with some additional produce. Conveniently enough she had just finished baking bread and gave me a loaf. Warm-out-of-the-oven to-die-for homemade bread. I guarantee Grandma has given out thousands of loaves of bread in her life and I have had many of them. However, a lot of them are frozen (cause it freezes beautifully) and I have to wait for them to thaw. I forgot how amazing it is straight out of the oven though. Grandmas are the best!

Some of my haul for the week.

Carb gold!

Mission Accomplished

Guess who's getting a DVR...

...THIS GIRL!

Yes, I'm spoiled:)