Tuesday Things - Spring To-Do List

So, I was gonna blog about food today, but I haven't really cooked anything interesting lately.  Instead, I've been thinking a lot of all the things I want to get done now that it looks like spring has arrived.  I've basically been stuck in the house since the first week of December, so I have a lot of things I've been putting off.  And I have yet to write them down, so here we are :)

I need to:

 - adjust to freaking daylight savings time...I don't usually have any trouble, but these last few days have been ROUGH

- get my hair done!  My hair has not been touched since early October, and it has grown like crazy...and I got my highlights too light that trip, so my roots are super noticeable. (Note to self - go darker in the fall just in case you have to go all winter without getting it done again).  I had an appointment the week after Thanksgiving...but totally got the mustang stuck in the driveway...and I haven't wanted to drive it since :)

- get my car washed/detailed.  Brian's been driving my car everyday since Thanksgiving, including a two week trip to Chicago in January...and it's a bit of a mess :). It's been washed a couple times, but it's been way too cold to wash it often, and the interior desperately needs to be cleaned out.  I'd really like to get it detailed so it looks brand new again :). She's gotta stick around for a long time :)

- also car-related - clean out the garage!  Months and months of snow and stuff falling off the car and melting in the garage means it is DIRTY.  

- get a library card :). In part of my effort to save money this year, I think it'd be a good idea to join our local library, so I won't buy as many books (I'll still buy some, of course).  Plus there are a lot of books that I want to read, but not necessarily buy (mostly books by authors I've seen on The Daily Show).  Why am I explaining the point of a library??  Sorry :). 

- Go shopping!  I want to take a trip the the outlet mall to search for some of my spring wish list items. The outlet mall is about an hour away, and kind of annoying to get to, so I don't go often, but I think a trip is in order :). And then a trip to the Mall of America for anything else I need.

Ok, I think that's about it...super exciting, I know :). But spring!! Yay!  Anything you guys plan to do this spring? 

Monday Morning Recap!

Well, we had a pretty uneventful weekend.  Both of us were feeling like a quiet weekend at home since last weekend was pretty crazy, and the next two weekends will probably be too (St. Patty's day followed by Brian's and a few friend's birthdays).  So, yet again, I don't have many pictures to add!

On Friday Brian came home for lunch, and we went to a local Sri Lankan restaurant that does a lunch buffet.  We were supposed to be meeting friends, but they got stuck at work, so it was just us.  After we ate, we ran to Home Depot to pick up some water softener salt (we were totally out...this is our first time having a water softener to worry about).  We spent the rest of the day at home, where I watched Pretty Little Liars on Netflix in between some chores, and we had leftovers for dinner.

Saturday morning I got up and got ready to go to the grocery store.  Brian decided he wanted to come with, so I then waited for him to get ready :). After shopping, we picked up lunch from Panera and came back home.  Again, we spent the rest of the day at home.  I worked on my planners and some stuff on the computer (and tried to get the 2013 Outlook calendar to color code like it used to...it doesn't, but I think I figured out a way to make it work for me). And I talked to my mom! Hi mom!!  Also, I watched more Pretty Little Liars (not sure how I got sucked in again...).  I stayed up way too late watching, and reading the hilarious recaps on Forever Young Adult (<- one of my favorite sites that I discovered a few months ago...and the main reason why this isn't strictly a TV blog, they were already doing what I would do!). The time change didn't help :)

At Target I found the super cute Mara Mi sticky notes that people have been posting on Instagram.  So cute, and on sale!!  (I grabbed some St Patty's & spring stickers too - my love for stickers and stationery is back in full force). 

                 

Sunday was spent doing laundry and watching PLL.  Yep, I'm a lazy, lazy dork :)  At least I got the laundry done! (Well, I still have one load to put away, but you know).

In good news, it was actually warmer this weekend!  Like, in the 30s & 40s!  We can see the pavement of our street again!!  Whoo-hoo!! :)

Hope you had a great weekend! Anything exciting to share??

Flashback Friday - A Disney Engagement

[occasionally, on Fridays, I plan on picking out a photo (or two) and writing up a story that explains it.  Since Disney is on my mind, these seemed appropriate :)]

Ahh, March 2008.  I was finishing up my last semester of college (finally), it was sunny and warm (like March is supposed to be!), Brian and I had been dating for about a year & a half, and spring break was right around the corner.

Brian and I had been talking about getting engaged, but I didn't want to tell him how to do it, so all I told him was that I didn't want a lot of people watching (like in the movies or on tv when the couple is at a family party or something and he says he has an announcement and everyone watches while he gets down on one knee...no.  No, no, no).  But I also said that being in a large crowd, at Disney World for example, where the people watching didn't know me, wouldn't be so bad.  We also discussed rings, and (after a ton of probing) I said I wanted a princess-cut diamond, in a white gold setting that didn't stick out too much (I'm forever bumping my hands into walls...and door frames).

As spring break approached, Brian said he wanted to take me to Disney for the first weekend of my vacation, and stay at the Dolphin Resort, where I had always wanted to stay (I've always had a things for dolphins).  So, I had an idea that he might propose that weekend.  We spent that Saturday at the Magic Kingdom, and I kept seeing him adorably check his pockets as if he might lose something :).  Then, as we're watching the fireworks in front of Cinderella's castle, his arms wrapped around me, he pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him!  So perfect :) (I said yes, obviously!)

The ring itself was stunning!  I could not believe he had picked out such an amazing ring all by himself, with limited input from me :)  I spent the rest of the week back home, showing it off to anyone I could!  That's about the time I started regularly painting my nails too, because I wanted to draw attention to my hand without annoyingly shoving it in people's faces.

We had a pretty long engagement, but we finally got married in September of 2010 and are now living happily ever after!

I'd love to hear other engagement stories!  Feel free to share!

Have an awesome weekend!

Thursday Randomness

Just some random thoughts this Thursday morning...

- I'm so over winter.  Seriously, I was doing fine, but I think now that it's March and in my head March = spring, it's starting to get to me :/  Maybe one day I'll acclimate to this climate (<- dork).

- I've been pretty useless this week, but need to get some crap done today...mostly clean the house in case we decide to have people over this weekend.

- Supposedly it's going to be warmer this weekend...but it says that a lot, and I refuse to continue getting my hopes up.

- No idea what we're gonna do this weekend.  Maybe go to Ikea if I can talk Brian into it :)  We're in need of dining chairs and a coffee table.

- I've been a little obsessed with Buzzfeed lately, particularly their quizzes.  I get a little over-excited when I get a result I love, like when I got Aurora for Which Disney Princess are You.

- I need to get back in the habit of working out first thing in the morning...I like getting it done and having the rest of my day free, but I am so not a morning person.  I managed it today though :)  

Anywho, that's all for now!  What do you have going on this Thursday?

What I've Been... Reading

I read 8 books in February :). 

In honor of Valentines Day, I decided to make February a chick lit month.  However instead of buying new books, I went ahead and re-read the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella.  I know a lot of people don't like to re-read books, but for me it's not any different that re-watching my favorite movies over and over again.  I love re-reading my favorite books and series every few years or so (or every year in some cases!). 

I didn't get into chick lit until around 2009, when I first read the Shopaholic series (and every other book I could get my hands on).  Just like chick flicks, I find them to be light, easy reads that mostly make me laugh, though there are a few heartbreakers in the genre.  I mostly read at night, relaxing in bed before going to sleep, and love light reads that make me happy as I drift off.

In between a couple of the Shopaholic books, I also read Blog Inc by Joy Cho.  I had been toying with the idea of starting a blog for awhile, but wanted to do it right.  I thought reading this book would give me a good foundation and a lot of things to think about, and I was right.  I highly recommend it if you're a blogger or thinking about becoming one.

After finishing the last Shopaholic book, Mini Shopaholic, I was looking for something short to read, and looking through my Kindle I remembered that I had downloaded The Great Gatsby years ago, but had never read it.  The Great Gatsby is one of those books that I'm pretty sure I was supposed to read in high school, but didn't.  So, I finally read it, and it was pretty good!  I have a great fondness for all things roaring twenties, so this was right up my alley.  As I mentioned in my weekend recap, as soon as I finished reading I watched the new movie, with Leo(!), and really liked it.  I'm usually pretty harsh on movie adaptations of books (ahem, Confessions of a Shopaholic movie) especially if the book is fresh in my mind, but I thought it was well done.

So that's what I read in February! I haven't decided what I want to read next...any recommendations?  What have you been reading?

Travel Tuesday - Walt Disney World!!

I love Disney World.  Anyone who knows me knows this to be true.  

Growing up in Florida, I had the wonderful privilege of visiting WDW most summers.  I know this makes me extremely lucky :)  We were only able to go because my dad coached a team at an academic tournament that happened there every summer.  It was pretty much the only vacation we ever took, but we loved it :)  As I got older, that joy never left and I introduced Brian to the wonders of Disney when we started dating (he had been only once before, when he was very young.)  He ended up proposing during the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom during one of our trips, and we even spent our honeymoon at the parks and then on a Disney cruise :)

In 2012, while on another Disney cruise with his family, we decided to join the Disney Vacation Club.  I won't go into all the details here, but I feel it was definitely worth it, and that we've gotten our money's worth already.  We have since used our membership for a week long trip to Disney's Aulani Resort in Hawaii for our 30th birthdays and on a trip to WDW last summer with my family for my parents' 35th anniversary!  We spent a long weekend with my parents and siblings (2 brothers couldn't make it, but their wives did!) and had a fabulous time!  Definitely brought back a lot of memories from our younger days :)

We're currently planning our next trip for this October, with my husband's family this time.  His mom and sister haven't been since that one trip when my husband was a kid, and it will be our niece's first trip!  She will have just turned 9, and I think it is going to be awesome!

I still have a couple of weeks before I can book our rooms (we have to be 7 months out to book, unless we plan on staying at our "home resort"), but I'm hoping we're able to snag rooms at the newly completed Villas at the Grand Floridian.  I've never stayed at the Grand Floridian, but always wanted to, and the new villas look AMAZING!  Our main goal is to be able to stay at one of the resorts on the monorail to make things easier, so hopefully I'll be able to make that happen!

It will be my first trip with the new Magic Bands and Fast Pass+, so even though I've been there so many times there will be new things for me to experience too :)  Needless to say, I'm super excited!

Have you ever been to Disney?  I've actually never been to Disneyland, only Disney World, but hope to make it to some of the other parks in my life :)  Anybody out there a Disney fangirl like me?  If yes, what are your favorite things to do there?  If no, where's your favorite vacation spot?

Monday Morning Recap

My idea is to use Mondays as a day to kind of recap what's been going on in real life.  Last week wasn't too exciting, it was ridiculously cold (like 20 below) so I didn't go anywhere during the week.  We had some weekend adventures though!  I totally failed at taking pictures, so this post will be wordy!  I did take some, but they were all snapchats! 

Friday was cold and windy, so instead of our usual lunch & errands date, Brian and I spent the afternoon at home.  That night, Brian and I went out to dinner at a local Mexican food restaurant, where I had one margarita too many (which means I had 2...they were yummy!). After dinner we had about an hour to kill before bowling, so I spent my time playing Just Dance on the xbox, while Brian played a game on his computer.  That game is so hard!  Brian thought I was crazy when I went upstairs and was panting. I had fun though :) 

[Friday night is bowling night, since the local bowling alley has unlimited bowling for $10 (including shoes) from 9:30 - 12:00 every Friday.  We started this tradition with some friends over the summer, when unlimited bowling started at 8:30, and we actually started getting pretty good! We havn't been as much this winter, but still go pretty regularly.]

Bowling was fun, even though I played terribly!  I'm still better than I was the first time we went last year though :). There ended up being 7 of us, instead of our usual 4, so we only made it through 2 games.  It was a good time :)

Saturday was a lazy day around here, I spent most of the day reading and watching movies.  I finished reading The Great Gatsby, then immediately watched the newest movie :) I thought it was a pretty good adaptation! 

That night some friends of ours had people over for food and board games.  Everyone brought some food (mostly chips and dips!) and we played a couple rounds of Quelf, and one epic round of Cards Against Humanity :). 

               our new box for all the expansions!

Brian and I had never played Quelf before...it's not really my favorite kind of game (I am TERRIBLE at games where you have to remember weird rules, like saying a certain phrase every time you say a sentence), but we had a good time.  Cards Against Humanity remains our favorite party game though, and we're super excited for the expansion packs to get here soon! 

After the games, most everyone went home around midnight, but we went out with a couple friends to a local bar that has dancing at night.  That was super fun (I love going dancing!).  

Sunday was spent recovering though :). I did brave the cold to go grocery shopping, which I hate doing on Sundays because Super Target is always so crowded, and yesterday was no exception.  Luckily we didn't need too much, and I was out of there pretty quickly.  I did find some cute stationery goodies in the dollar spot though!

I also managed a little laundry, and watched a movie (finally watched The Heat - loved it!). Then Brian and I caught up on the few TV shows that we watch together and then watched Captain America (we're excited for the next one!).  

And that was our weekend! Super exciting, I know :). I'll try to get better at taking pictures, and hopefully it will start warming up so we can get out more! 

How was your weekend? Do anything exciting?