Blogtober Day 23

Your favorite Halloween costume



I wouldn't be able to tell you my favorite Halloween costume without showing you what I have dressed up as over the years.  Unfortunately, my parents didn't capture every costume, but here is what I was able to dig up.

Halloween 1990

Kitty Cat

Halloween 1991

Clown

Halloween 1992

Evidently I was a clown two years in a row

Halloween 1994

Snow White

Halloween 1995

Pocahontas

Halloween 1996

Cowgirl

Halloween 1997

Mardi Gras Princess

Halloween 1998

Spider Beanie Baby

Halloween 2000

Three Blind Mice

During junior high, I know I dressed up as a witch one year and then my friend and I dressed up as the California Raisins (we wore all black and trash bags stuffed with newspaper), but I can't seem to find any pictures

My sophomore year of high school, we performed Thriller for dance team, but I couldn't find any pictures of that either.  I don't remember dressing up my junior or senior years.

Freshman year of college, I didn't dress up.

Sophomore year

Cat

Junior year

Ballerina

Senior year

Glow stick person

If I had to choose a favorite, it would have to be the three blind mice or the Beanie Baby.  Both costumes were creative and comfortable!

Happy Halloween!

Blogtober Day 22

Five of your all time favorite songs and a memory associated with them.

1. Affirmation by Savage Garden-I remember receiving this album either for my birthday or from the Easter Bunny while I was in 5th grade and absolutely loving this song.  To this day I still listen to it and I think the lyrics are awesome and I agree with each and every verse.

2. How to Save a Life by The Fray-Do you remember when this song was used in the preview for an upcoming season of Grey's Anatomy?  I think the combination of the song with one of my favorite shows made me love this song even more.  My boyfriend at the time bought me the CD for Christmas and I listened to it no less than one hundred times.

3. Let Her Cry by Hootie and the Blowfish-In grade school, my babysitter would play the Hootie and the Blowfish CD when we were in the car and I loved it.  Still listen to all of his songs to this day, but this one was my favorite.  There is just something about Darius Rucker's voice!

4. She's in Love with the Boy by Trisha Yearwood-One of my very favorite songs as a youngster.  Evidently I would sing it in the car every time it came on.

5. Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls-It's no secret that I love the Goo Goo Dolls, but Iris is my very favorite song of theirs.  It took a lot of thinking to narrow it down, because I really do love them all, but there's just something about this one.  Maybe it's because it was on the City of Angels soundtrack and I listened to it over and over.  Who knows?

Blogtober Day 21

What are your pet peeves?

If you were to ask my dear sweet husband or my wonderful parents and siblings, I'm sure they would be able to list many many more than I am about to share with you but I'll keep things somewhat short and simple.

1. The volume being on an odd number, whether it be on the radio or on the TV

2.  Not changing the toilet paper roll when it is empty

3. An unmade bed

4. Chewing with your mouth open-it's gross folks

5. Not putting the twisty tie back on the bread

6. Leaving the bathroom rug on the floor instead of hanging it over the tub

7. Uneven spacing.  For example, our templates for charting at work are double spaced for the first half and single spaced on the bottom half and it drives me BANANAS!  Therefore, I go in and fix it every single time I write a note.

8. Disorganized note taking.  In high school and college all, all of my notes were color-coded and I do NOT doodle.

So, everyone should say a little prayer for what Aaron and my family have had to put up with!

Blogtober Day 20

The best advice you've ever received.

 

I'm the type of person who always seeks out those older than myself for advice, so I've received loads of advice over the years.  However, the two best pieces of advice that have come my way are to give a situation time and to always put your family first.

 

The first bit of advice came at a time in my life when I didn't quite understand a lot of what was happening to me.  There were a lot of changes that I had to adjust to and my mom kept telling me to give it time.  She was right (moms are always right aren't they?).  Time heals all wounds and God has His own plan for how our lives are supposed to turn out.  Putting our lives in His hands takes faith and there is often times some waiting involved, but it is all worth it in the end.

 

The second bit advice came today as I was sitting in my boss's office discussing my future at the hospital I currently work at.  My schedule right now is evening shift five days a week.  This makes seeing my new husband and having any kind of social life VERY difficult.  I've had an internal battle inside my head about what to do for quite some time.  We will just have to see what the future has in store!



Blogtober Day 19

Share a project you recently completed

I have two projects to share with you today!  The first is a room update and the second is a craft project I recently completed thanks to Pinterest.

First up is the room update.  If you recall from my home tour post, our living room was very outdated.  Here are some pictures in case you forgot.

Well, last weekend Aaron and I finally picked up some chairs from TJ Maxx as well as a table for our entry way and it's now my favorite room in our house.  I love low-lighting and the lamps make the room so cozy in the evening time.  

The frame hanging on our wall above the couch was a wedding gift from Aaron's siblings and can be found at Picture This in Seneca.  If you've never been to this gem of a store, you need to go!  Their Holiday Open House is the weekend of November 7th-9th and my mom and I are making a trip to check out all of the Christmas decor.  Most of my fall decorations in the pictures are also from there, with the exception of the little pumpkin I made.

Now for my craft project!  I pinned this tutorial some time ago.  Well, since we used mason jars as part of our wedding decor, I had tons of lids left over.  Cue this project!  I bought some orange spray paint, orange yarn and cinnamon sticks and was ready to go.  It was super easy and I used a hot glue gun to make sure the cinnamon sticks stayed in place.  The hardest part was getting the yarn tied tight enough and I had to have Aaron help me out there.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!   We spent ours at the K-State game (the sacrifices I make for my husband), watching the Royals, and carving pumpkins.  Back to reality today!

Blogtober Day 18

Describe the most adventurous thing you've ever done

If someone were to ask me to describe myself in three words, adventurous would not be one of them.  I've had my fair share of what I would describe as adventures, but I have yet to do anything that would blow everyone out of the water.  Here are a few of the things I would describe as adventurous.

1. Getting married

Marriage itself is an adventure and one that I am really excited about.  We have so much to look forward to in our future.

2. Deciding to get two Bachelor's degrees

I knew my sophomore year of college that I wanted to be a nurse.  I got my CNA and started working on a behavioral health unit.  It was then that I decided I wanted to get my degree in psychology before going to nursing school.  I knew it would mean more debt, but I also knew it was something I enjoyed and it would give me the opportunity to enjoy a full four years at KU with my friends and sorority.  I don't regret my decision one bit.

3. Buying a house

Oh the joys of home ownership.  After tearing out all of the flooring, scraping the ceilings, painting the walls and ceilings and installing new floors and lights, I knew this would be quite the adventure.  The fun has just begun, but I know it will all be worth it.

I'm sure there are many more things I have done, but nothing gigantic jumps into my head.  Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!  Go Royals!

Blogtober Day 17

A video or article that inspired you

A few weeks ago, there was a news story circulating regarding a 29 year old woman who is choosing to end her life after being diagnosed with a glioblastoma. 

My third semester of nursing school, we were required to pick a topic, specifically a medical dilemma, and write an ethics paper on this topic.  The topic I chose was physician-assisted death (PAD).  Now no sane human being wants to write a 20 page research paper, but I truly enjoyed all of the research I did on this particular topic because I learned so much.

For the record, the stance I took was for PAD.  If you'd like to know my reasoning, I would be more than willing to share with you, but I'm not going to bore everyone with my views.  However, I would highly recommend that everyone watch the documentary How To Die in Oregon.  It is both heart-breaking and enlightening and will prompt some serious thinking about the topic.

Would I be able to make the decision this young woman did, I honestly do not know.  I can say that I don't think it's a cowardice decision and I will argue that to no end.  I believe this woman to be a brave individual who with the information she was given made the decision to not put herself or her family through the suffering she would endure dying naturally.



Blogtober Day 16

Pick a Disney song that relates to your life and explain why.

I'm going to change this one up a bit and share my favorite Disney songs with you instead.  It's no secret I'm a Disney fan.  I own far too many Disney DVDs and dream of going to Disney World again.  You can read about my favorite Disney movies here.

There are so many Disney songs to choose from, so I narrowed it down to my top five.

5. Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid-This is a classic and I can remember singing it in the shower as a youngster and changing the words based on the fact that I wanted to be part of the merpeople.  I'm a goon.

4. Stories from Beauty and the Beast the Enchanted Christmas-I love stories and reading and anything that has to do with books.  Combine that with my love for anything Beauty and the Beast and I'm sold.  This song is definitely a favorite.

3. As Long As There's Christmas from Beauty and the Beast the Enchanted Christmas-Again, combine my love of Beauty and the Beast with my love of something else, in this case Christmas, and I'm hooked forever.

2. Let it Go from Frozen-The minute I returned home from seeing this movie with my youngest sister, this song was downloaded to my computer and I was singing it ALL the time.

1. Tale as Old as Time from Beauty and the Beast-You had to have known this would be the case.  After all, it is my favorite Disney movie.  The instrumental version was played at our wedding while guests were being seated.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Blogtober Day 15

What do you do to relax?

 

I'm still looking for the perfect way to wind down because I can be pretty high strung at times.  Interestingly enough, my anxiety worsened when I went to college and it went up from there.  Driving, especially in the rain or snow, would really do me in.  In fact, Ion my way home to Topeka or back to Lawrence I would count the mile markers just to help me get through the drive (borderline crazy I know).  Thankfully, the past few years have been pretty good.

 

My best solution was just to come to terms with the fact that most everything is not in my control, despite the fact that I want it to be at all times.  Being a control freak made this really difficult, but as I stated I have gotten much better.  I still have my quirks (i.e. volume on an odd number really bothers me, I count stairs, I don't particulary enjoy crowds or elevators, etc.) but these are minor compared to the fact that I could be agoraphobic.

 

Other ways I have found to relax include listening to soothing music.  I have a playlist on my phone and computer specifically called "Calming" and it consists of some Enya, Hans Zimmer, and various other classical melodies.  Lavendar has also played a big part.  Not everyone can stand the aroma, but I love it and it has been proven to help calm you down.

 

I wish I was a bath person, but I've never really gotten into that sort of thing, but a hot shower will generally due the trick as well.  Lastly, a good old Disney movie.  I know, I know this sounds silly, but there is something about watching a movie from my childhood that I find relaxing.  It takes me back to a time that was more carefree.

 

I'm up for other ideas if you have any suggestions!



Blogtober Day 14

Describe where you come from.

For my birthday this past year, my dad got me a kit from Ancestry to test my DNA.  It was such a great gift idea and so interesting to find out the results.  As it turns out, I am 48% Western European, 20% Irish, 17% Eastern European, 7% Scandanavian, and then 8% of various trace regions.  Cool right?!

I don't remember the exact breakdown between my mom and dad, but that's neither here nor there.  Here's a look at where I come from.

Of course, without my wonderful parents, I wouldn't be writing to you today.  They are both accomplished, intelligent, and caring individuals and I'm so grateful to have them in my life.  My personality VERY closely resembles my mother's, but I have many attributes of my father's as well

  

My paternal grandparents have both moved on to a better life and, unfortunately, this occurred before I truly got a chance to know them.  However, I do know that my grandpa once fed me squirrel's brains and I thank God to this day that I was too young to know any better and too young to remember the taste!

My beautiful grandmother is battling Alzheimer's disease, but I am so grateful for all the time I spent on her lap listening to stories or singing on the piano bench as her fingers ran across the ivory keys.  She is a remarkable woman.

I'm not sure there is a soul in this world that is as kind as my grandpa's.  I spent many weeks and weekends at my grandparent's house and I cannot remember him raising his voice more than a few times.  This man is a saint.

Lastly, I've learned that the saying "when God closes a door, he opens a window" could not be more true.  My parents' divorce brought me two wonderful step-parents and a few more brothers, a sister, and multiple other extended family members.  This is my family.