I'm a Dork - My Travel Planning Notebook

Today we're gonna talk about what a dork I am...specifically relating to my list-making tendencies :).

I love notebooks.  I love making lists.  I love writing things down.  I have about a million notebooks.  And even more pens :).  

One of the things I use notebooks/paper for is travel.  Ever since we started traveling regularly (the joys of having family all over the country) I have grabbed whatever notebook was closer and jotted down details and packing lists.  As a result, I have travel info and packing lists everywhere.  This year, in a quest to be more organized, I started a travel notebook.  

I grabbed a set of white Moleskine Volant notebooks to use for this purpose (and another planning notebook, but we'll get into that another time).  While in Texas for Christmas, the ladies took a trip to Michael's and Hobby Lobby where I picked up some travel related stickers, because I'm a dork and wanted to decorate my notebook :).

I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out :). And those Florida themed stickers made me simultaneously extremely happy and homesick :). 

Inside, I have a cover page, followed by a travel bucket list, because why not.

For each trip I use a post-it tab to make them easy to turn to.  I use a couple pages to plan the trip, writing down dates, reservation details, things I want to do, etc.  Then a couple of pages are used for my packing lists, where I write lots of (redundant) lists of outfit ideas, clothes & accessories to pack, what to pack in my toiletry & makeup cases, and what to pack in my carry-on.  You'd think that with as much traveling as I've done the last decade or so I'd have all of this down, but I'm a worrier and am convinced I'll forget something if I don't have a list and can check things off as I go. 

As you can see, I haven't gotten much use out of it this year, but have begun planning our Disney trip, had a trip to Chicago that didn't happen, and a last minute trip to Florida.  Having this system really helped to ease my mind a bit for that trip, though the weather tricked me and I didn't end up packing the best clothes for the trip.  I had everything I needed though, which rarely happens with last minute trips.  (And by last minute I mean I bought my plane ticket the day before - nerve wracking!). 

So, that's my travel notebook :).  I guess it's maybe not that dorky...though may be a little nerdy.  I do feel like a dork putting it out there though :).  Hopefully it continues to work for me!  What do you guys do to keep your travel plans organized? I'd love to hear and planning and/or packing tips you have! 

Thanks for stopping by!

What I've Been...Watching

Once again, I had a totally different idea for today's post, but I've been busy with actual work stuff and this will be quicker.  Sorry its late!  And sorry for such a text heavy post!

So, what have I been watching?  Well, mostly Pretty Little Liars...but let's talk about other stuff first :)

I watch a lot of TV.  Maybe too much, but I really enjoy it, and think of it as a hobby :) I watch most of it during the day, since we tend to go to bed a little early, which is why I'm forever grateful for the invention of the DVR :)  I'm also very, very grateful for the invention of Netflix Streaming because binge watching a TV show is also a favorite hobby of mine :)

A few of my favorite shows are ending their runs in the next month, so I thought I'd talk about them today.  Apologies if this is boring!

One of my favorite shows that is ending soon is How I Met Your Mother.  I didn't get into this show until it was a few seasons in (I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure it started during the one year in my life that I didn't have cable...either that or before I had a DVR).  It is one of the many shows that I decided to watch on Netflix, and quickly fell in love.  While I haven't loved all of the directions the show has taken over the last 9 seasons (enough with the Ted loves Robin story guys...), I became invested in the characters (& the cast is great), and am getting sad at having to say goodbye.  Watching a group of friends relatively close to my own age has been fun, and you've got to love watching a couple's journey from dating to engaged to broken-up to engaged again to married to having kids, all while still having social lives :)  I do wish this last season hadn't been focused on one weekend, and we could actually see Ted's relationship with the mother (and I agree its pretty weird that he's been telling his kids stories of all the women he hooked up with/was in love with [ahem, Robin] before he met their mother...).  I'm interested to see how they wrap the story up.  HIMYM will always be one of those shows that I'll stop and watch when its on TV...and is great for when I want the TV on but don't have anything in particular to watch (since its rerun pretty regularly).  

Also ending soon is Psych, which is one of the few shows my husband and I watch together (he's not as into TV as I am).  I actually don't remember when I started watching this show...but I want to say I watched it because my parents watched it...I think.  Anyway, its another that I've binge-watched a few times, and Brian has too.  We actually own the first few seasons, but then Netflix came along :).  I love the dynamic between Shawn & Gus, and Maggie Lawson, who plays Juliet, is a total girl crush of mine.  I still laugh just as much as always, and will be sad to see it go!  I'm very excited to see what the cast does next though.

One of the other shows Brian and I watch together, Raising Hope, was just canceled as well.  Yet another show that I randomly decided to watch on Netflix, it surprised me how much we enjoyed it.  Our favorite character is Burt, who is fantastically funny :)  I'm not as attached to this show as the others I've mentioned...we actually have a few episodes sitting unwatched on the DVR, but I figured I'd mention it :)  The first season, and most of the second are definitely the best. 

Anyway, the loss of these shows will clear some room in my viewing schedule...most likely to be filled with more Netflix binge-watching :)  I recommend them if you haven't seen them (or if you have and just like re-watching things as much as I do!)  Do you guys have any recommendations for what I could fill the void of these shows with?  Any Netflix recs?  I'd love to hear your opinions on the shows I talked about, or any other show you love!  

Thanks for listening (reading?) to me ramble :)

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?