2013

wow, you guys are truly amazing.

thank you so much for the support and advice from my last post.

i can't wait to dive further into everything you shared with me.

and thanks for letting me have a pity party.

in other news, this week was the longest ever.

we still haven't found a place to live yet, so we're

still bummin' it on my in-law's guest bed.

they're so sweet to let us stay for so long.

hopefully it will only be a short time until we find somewhere to live.

taylor is still working long hours and i'm trying to find ways to

entertain myself after work, while also staying up until he gets home

(which is increasingly harder to do the later towards the end of the week it gets)

one of my little projects i've been working on for the past couple of days is this guy;

yes, yes, i know, it's 2013, and it's practically october.

i honestly wasn't thinking about it until after i was practically all finished.

so there will be a 2014 version coming shortly, but i just love it!

what do you think?

also wanted to shout out to the girls from the blogger meet up on tuesday.

it was so lovely to meet you new girls, even though it was hard to talk to everybody!

i'm not going to lie, i was skeptical at first, but my girl rylee and i convinced

each other to go and i'm pretty glad we went-mostly because we partook in

some of the best french fry goodness my mouth has ever tasted:

double fried

buffalo sauce

ranch dressing

blue cheese crumbles

is your mouth watering yet?

yah, if you get a chance, go to the awful waffle in provo

and order the buffalo frite (pronounced "freet", as we learned).

hope you all have a lovely weekend!

NOT REALLY SURE WHAT TO TITLE THIS

i saw this quote on pinterest about a week ago and it really hit home.

our life for the last month + a half has been more crazy than

anything i could ever imagine.

and i'm not talking about just the bed bugs (which is, thankfully, behind us)

i'm not sure that i'm ready to get to specifics with the blogging world,

but i guess i never thought things like this would ever happen to me.

not that i'm an exception, it's just that you always hear about

people going through challenges and trials that has effected

them their whole life, and that's not really something i've ever

been able to relate to. now i'm not saying my life has been cushy by any means,

i've just never had to go through something so hard that it seems unbearable.

until now.

until this moment, when the unthinkable is actually happening.

to me.

now i'm not asking for a pity party, i really just need to get it out of my brain.

someday in the future, i'll fill you guys in.

but all i can do right now is take it day by day.

"and with that she realized the only control

she had was how she chose to handle them"

i know this post doesn't make a lot of sense, since you guys

probably have no idea what i'm even talking about

(well, maybe some of you do..)

i guess what i'm trying to say is i am working on figuring out

what works best for me when times are hard.

when life throws things at you that you aren't prepared for,

and how we choose to react to it is so important.

so yes, this is a cry for help, of sorts.

how can i channel those feelings of anger, sadness, frustration

and confusion into something positive?

GREEN SMOOTHIE VIRGIN

happy tuesday, everyone!

one of the many perks of temporarily living at tay's parents house

is learning the many tricks of the trade of healthy eating.

tonight, mama hawkins and i ventured into the slightly intimidating world of

green smoothies

with a very basic recipe that was actually super good!

i've always been kindof skeptical about green smoothies..

i mean, carrots? spinach? broccoli? 

in smoothies?

no, thanks.

not to mention all those types of seeds.

but this one really exceeded my expectations, so i wanted to share!

here's what you need:

1/2 banana, peeled

1+1/2 cups of green grapes

1 medium orange (recipe says about 5.5 oz), whole, peeled but with pith intact

1 inch thick slice of pineapple with core, peeled (we used frozen pineapples)*

1+1/2 cup of packed fresh spinach

(if you aren't a huge fan of spinach, i would recommend using a little less, it's pretty a dominant flavor)

1/8 teaspoon grated lime zest

2 tablespoons agave nectar

1 cup of ice cubes

*we actually used a tropical fruit frozen mix and added mangos too!

add all the ingredients to your blender or vitamix, turn on the machine

and slowly increase the speed to 10, then high

give it a try and let me know what you think!

oh, and if you have any other good green smoothie recipes,

please leave me a comment below!

THE WORST

please excuse the vulgarity of this post..it just had to be done.

this is to you, park place apartments.

for making our life a living hell the past month and a half.

thanks a lot for wasting our time.

for wasting our money.

for letting us move in when your complex was infested.

for all the sleepless nights i would lay awake

worrying how long it would be before the next step would be taken to get everything treated.

for all the tears shed, the objects thrown, the curses said.

for the fake concern you had for our situation.

we know you don't care..just stay in your locked office like the cowards you are.

oh, and thanks for not letting us break our lease,

after having slept there for five nights.

for the packing, unpacking, packing and unpacking we did.

for the money we wasted on a u-haul thinking it would fry those S.O.B's.

and now for the packing, unloading, and unpacking we still have to do.

oh, and most of all, thanks for giving us bed bugs.

oh wait, but thanks for getting rid of them, we really appreciate the gesture.

you can all go shave your backs now.

giveaway

giveaway time!

head over to kelso at the golden runway here to enter her

crooked nook

giveaway!