Isn't life lovely?

It's Thursday again! Wow... Another round of what I've been grateful for this week.

Well.  It's been quite the week.  Quite the week I tell you.  More on that later....  

Nevertheless, I'm grateful for these lovelies this week:

• Answers to prayers
• Perspective
• Friends & Family
• Sincerity
• New cleats (Ooooohhh they are so beautiful!)
• Gold's Gym
• Thermals
• the movie Pitch Perfect (round 2 was even better than the first!)

What are you thankful for today?!

23 years under one name

I decided to stray from the alliterations and went with "Life's Lovelies" for my weekly Thursday post.  There are so many lovely things in the world, and I'd like to take more time to recognize the ones in my life.  So.... read it or don't, but this is a new personal goal for me that I am super excited about. 

So this week I've had lots of things to be grateful for, but I'm narrowing it down to 10 things:

• Olive Garden's endless salad and bread sticks (with Alfredo dipping sauce of course)
• Mini pizzas and quality time spent with friends
• Groupon.... hello massage :)
• Better than Sex cake
• Trying something new at a restaurant and LOVING it
• No-Rush, music blasting mornings
• Social Media (finally jumped into Instagram!! @haystack04)
• End of the year Settlements
• Falling asleep on the couch where the fireplace be a-blazin'
• The perfect excuse:  Her: "Game at 9:30 tonight!" Me: "Sorry, I can't come, it's my birthday today so I'm going to celebrate with lots of cake, and no exercising." BOOYAH!

Looking for the first post?  Well it's right HERE!

P.S. I've definitely adopted Kay's idea of birthday weeks and it's been fantastic. :)  Oh and I heard someone say that on his birthday he watches movies all day long, and that's all he wants for his birthday.  Going to the theater and staying there all day, or renting a bunch of movies and gluing your backside to the couch....either way it's a pretty cool tradition!  Anyone have any awesome birthday traditions I could adopt??

Great, Grand Gratitude

Do you ever have those days when you just feel grateful for EVERYTHING?!  Honestly I have been feeling so grateful yesterday and today, and so I'm going to share a few things with you.  Someone should make a holiday where we talk about all the things we're thankful for..... hmm.... oh yeah there is one, and I was too busy eating pretzel jello salad and mashed potatoes to think of these things.

I'm grateful for:

1. Spending time with family I don't get to see every day (not that I don't love my mom, pops and pk.... shoot that sounded bad)
2. Work
3. Working with people that are fantastically intelligent and fantastically wonderful
4. Loving my job, and being truly invested in our cases
5. People who listen
6. People who don't listen - to remind me that I need to make sure I'm a person who listens
7. Music
8. Good movies that make me laugh (PITCH PERFECT - go see it. right now.)
9. Good health, and the ability to exercise
10. Patience
11. Inspirational Quotes
12. T-O-Double
13. Craft Projects
14. Heating blankets and car heaters.

I'm thinking about trying to make this a weekly thing - listing the specific things I'm grateful for, for that day/week.  Maybe I'll do it on Thursdays and call it: Thanks Thursday.  Eh? Or Thanktitude Thursday?  Gobs of Gratitude?  We'll see.

October To Do List

I think I'm going to start doing To-Do lists for projects I want to do during each month.  They might actually get done if I set a time frame, eh?   I can only hope....

 

OCTOBER TO DO LIST:

 

Paint bookshoeshelf

 

Sew this Messenger bag



De-Junk bathroom and kitchen storage boxes

Sew this iPhone case

Start going to the cycling class with my mom

 

Watch this.

Finish this.

I'm off to a good start if you ask me!  I found the bookcase at a yard sale for $15! Booyah! (So much better than the cheapest one I could find....$75)  I have been trying to figure out how to keep my shoes organized and I think this will work!  This way I can look at all my beautiful vans, and none of my shoes will get squished.  I bought the fabric and have it all cut out for the messenger bag and I'll use scraps I have to make the iPhone case.  I have a few more hopeful items I could add to this list, but I'll start here first.  Don't want to get too ambitious. :)

P.S. click on the de-junk link, you'll find an awesome list of questions to ask yourselve while de-junking!

 



Dolla Dolla Bills Ya

Alright so I stumbled across this awesome website!  The Centsible Life. This lady is awesome!  I was just reading her last post about financial tips from her mother and laughed out loud at the following:

7. Avoid at all costs buying convenience foods.They are always more expensive that cooking from scratch. Yes. Even if you buy them with coupons making them free. They are more expensive as they will cost you in medical expenses because you are eating so badly when you eat convenience foods.

10. Take a senior with you on senior discount day to get the senior discount. She actually yelled at me once for buying something at Ross Dress for Less on a non-senior discount day even though I bought the item off the clearance rack at Ross Dress for Less. “You could have gotten more off with my discount,” she scolded.

I haven't had the chance to go through the whole thing yet, but sheesh it looks to be jam packed with intelligence.  I feel smarter already. I really think that the Internet is a wonderful thing.  It's full of self help stuff that is bound to help me survive in this world.  Thank heavens. 

I've always thought that I should have grown up in the 80's since I love their music, bright colors, their style and 80's dancing at Studio 600.... but after seeing Footloose (the original) and realizing that the raw 80's style is not for me, and now with the pure awesomeness of technology these days, I'm happy with where I'm at.

Anyways, this post had a point... I think...   Oh yeah! Check out The Centsible Life and fill your brain with financial wisdom. :)

#28 - Almost

So this morning I got really excited to blog about a bucket list item that I accomplished yesterday.  I sat down and tried to piece together how it happened, to make sure that it sounded just as awesome as I thought was and to make it comprehensive.  Then I realized I couldn't figure out how it happened.  Frustrated, I retraced my steps.  Okay yesterday I went to work, went to our softball game (don't worry, we DOMINATED), came home and we played Ticket to Ride with my family.  Hmm......   Then the realization hit.  It was in fact, just a dream.  (insert sad emoticon here)

This type of experience really makes me believe in the movie Inception that much more.  I swear to you I felt like my dream was really happening.  Now since the wind has sufficiently blown from my sails, and in order to bring you to understand how disappointed I am that this didn't actually happen, I'm going to tell about my dream.

Bucket list item #28: Run through a car wash

*Think Little Rascals when they run through the paint shop trying to catch Alfalfa and get painted blue, or in Cinderella Story when the evil twin step sisters go through the car wash.  *

Dream:  I pay my $5 and walk into this dark warehouse.  In front of me is the car wash, with all squirting machines in order. There is a line that has formed behind me.   I walk forward onto a black mat (one like hairstylists use to make sure their feet don't die from all that standing) and a loud beeping begins.  I look up and a big square brush is coming down, which then forces me to get on my stomach so it can scrub my back and head.  I move forward (now somehow standing), and a blast of streaming water hits me on all sides.  I open my arms (because it needs to be clean there too!) and then move forward.  Two spinning soapy foam/rag arms come at me and nearly knock me over with their vigorous scrubbing.  Again I walk forward and another blast of warm water hits me.  I am moved forward to a high speed drying fan that makes the skin on my face and arms get all stretched and blown around. (think automatic hand dryers that make the skin on your hands all funny looking from the blowing power)  Then I'm done and as happy as a lark.

Now I'm really starting to realize it's a dream because afterwards I remember that we all got in little shooter cars that used unwrapped starbursts for fuel and ammunition.  Nevertheless..... it was still the most awesome imaginary experience I've had in awhile. 

Keep on Keepin' on.

Guess what!!  Today is the 3 year anniversary of my first day as a paralegal!! 3 whole years.... wow.  To be honest, sometimes the stress of this job has gotten the best of me.  More times than one have I "lashed out irrationally."  HOWEVER, I love it.   I love that there is always something to be done so it keeps me busy and feeling accomplished.  I love communicating with people, connecting with people and watching how the end result really  makes the whole process worth it.  I love all the people that I work with.  I love being able to support myself and to feel independent. 

I love it all, but mostly, I am grateful. 

There are so many aspects of my life that I sometimes take for granted.  That's why I think there are such things as anniversaries, mile markers, finish lines, annual events - so that I can stop and realize just how far I've come.  To realize how great today really is, and that tomorrow will be even better. To realize that being grateful somehow makes you only see the roses you can stop and smell, and helps you forget about the nasty spiders and worms down below.  Everyone has both roses and spiders in their life, you can choose which you see most.   dramatically deep thought process finished.

While I was thinking about this awesome mile marker in my life I remembered my bucket list that I made forever ago.  Looking at the list I decided I am going to make it my goal to accomplish these two this year:

              #5: Ride in a train.

              #43: Carve my name into a tree.

Hopefully I can get #43 taken care of this weekend!  Bring on the family camping trip :)  Thanks to some wicked awesome people, I might have found a sweet way to accomplish #5 as well.  Anyone who likes the Giants are welcome to join!

Keep up the good work people, for tonight begins the weekend, and that right there is just enough reason to celebrate. :]  Huzzah!

P.S. movie trivia time.... can anyone guess the quote above?  "Lash out irrationally."  Such a good movie.

You Knock My Dirty Socks Off

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to spend some time with Parker, and oh the adventures we had!  It started out with me asking my family to come with me to the high school to run bleachers.  Parker initially said no, but changed his mind when he decided that we would probably be going to Todd's afterwards and there was a really good chance he could borrow the first season of Psych from him.  So we biked down, Parker sat and read his book in the shade while I re-enacted Rocky. (It looked the same too if you were wondering; kids flooding to follow me, birds scattering, etc.  NBD)
 


Afterwards, while we were riding our bikes to Todd's, Parker and I had some interesting conversations.   We talked about how truly amazing it is that we can build our own houses and they don't fall apart like a house of cards.  We made the connection that Jordan, Mom and I had a temperature issue with our feet.   We all cannot stand to have our feet hot, and therefore take off our shoes/socks at every possible opportunity.  Parker proceeded to tell me that before Jordan's mission, he would build a huge pile of dirty socks in the corner of the den because every time while he was playing computer it would get a little toasty in there, and Jordan would take his socks off and absent mindedly chuck them over his shoulder.  Parker said the pile would get pretty big, and would only be cleaned up if Jordan ran out of socks and needed them washed.  (My mom rarely sets foot in the den for reasons exactly like this one.  She has to keep her sanity somehow while living with us hooligans!)  Personally, I tend to pile my socks at the end of my bed, shoved in the bottom of my sheets.  Last time I changed my sheets I untucked the sheet only to be showered by a colorful display of dirty socks.  I counted and found 20 mismatched socks - most that had been missing from their mate for quite some time.  It would be normal if I were to kick off both socks during the night, but nope I just don't really care for socks on my left feet apparently. 

This also might explain why my mom would sometimes catch me as a child with my left foot on the wall in the middle of the night, or my left leg hanging off the bed.  It cannot be contained, it needs to be free!

You may not have ever wondered or wanted to know about my sleeping habits, but now you know.

Later we decided we were STARVING so we set out on a trip for a make shift meal.  I wanted a snow cone so we stopped to get that first.  Now you're thinking how much you want a snow cone, so let me help you out there by telling you that it was the most disgusting snow cone I've ever tasted. EVER.  Parker and I couldn't even finish the snow cone it was that terrible.  So, the moral to this story is to never trust a snow cone that is extremely large, costs $2 for the smallest least large size, takes 30 minutes to prepare and comes from a yellow shack with a hula skirt.  End of story, you've been warned.

Nostalgic

Looking at concerts for some reason.  Remembered that warped tour should be coming up soon.  Curiosity got to me and so I looked up the band list.

All Time Low

Breathe Carolina

Mayday Parade

We the Kings

You Me At Six

It's going to be quite the show this year!  Looking at the bands I got really really excited, but also very nostalgic.  Warped tour is a lighthouse moment for me.  (movie reference: What Happens in Vegas)  It is a special memory that I visit if I ever need to remember a time when I was truly happy.  I went twice, and both times were fantastic.  Each hold different treasured experiences in their separate memories. 

#1 - Ashes showed me how to Warped Tour it up in style, taught me that you ALWAYS meet the band, invited me to take an interest in meeting random smaller bands trying to make it big and showed me how to push your way to the front every time. 

#2 - Put a little cement in the bonding of my relationship with my brothers, gave Kay her very first spray painted t, showed off our loyalty (rain or shine) and re-affirmed my love for music.

I would love to go back, but I think Warped Tour is better as a memory this time around. I'd like to remember it when I was jumping around amongst all the sweaty people, desperately reaching to touch Rian Dawson or maybe Gabe Saporta, rather than being one of the people that stands in the back watching all the madness take place. 

P.S. I love the word nostalgic.  It just sounds cool.  Everyone that says it has always sounded cool, so I finally looked it up in the dictionary.  I believe it will find its way into my vocabulary quite nicely. :)

P.P.S I did just find out that All Time Low has a new CD out!  Of course I bought it! It's waiting patiently for me at home, ready for me to enjoy this weekend.  Can't wait.  

All Four Seasons!

Yesterday Todd and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary of our first date!  Well, it was more of a whole weekend of celebrations.  Friday we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner!!!! I had never been there and so we figured this was the perfect chance to try it out. 

WOW..... it was absolutely amazing!  Todd met me up here in SLC, picked me up and we only had to wait 10 minutes to be seated.  Thank heavens for being the early birds. Love that worm.  Of course we had to get cheesecake too, so I picked out Red Velvet cheesecake and Todd chose the White Chocolate Raspberry cheesecake.  Again, WOW.  SOOOOO GOOOD.  This might be our new favorite anniversary spot. 











Afterwards, we took a drive up the canyon, relaxed and enjoyed each others company.  This girl (thumb directed to my own chest) is a big fan of drives up the canyon.  There is something so peaceful about watching the scenery pass by.  Also, I was once again reminded of the fact that I am like a little child.  That car puts me to sleep faster than anything else, and I was having a hard time stifling the yawns on our way back.

Saturday day was filled with sun, outside chores and the procrastination of inside chores.  That night we got together with KKAH (now KJKJABHT haha) to celebrate Kaylyn's 22nd birthday!!!!!!  We successfully carried out our new tradition of making dinner together and it all turned out so good!  Happy birthday Kay!!  Such an adult.  Such a beauty. :)  After dinner we all headed over to the picture show and saw The Avengers!!  I really really liked that movie.  I highly recommend it to anyone. 

Sunday I helped Todd celebrate our anniversary by making him wake up early and come to our ward at 9:00 am! He loved that.  After church we played Ticket to Ride with my family (our new obsession) and just hung out for a bit.  Later we went over to Todd's for their belated Mothers Day get together.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone, have some friendly competition and to celebrate wonderful mothers.  That night we decided to take our trains game to another level.  Two boards, two games, two winners from each game played for the title.  Guess who won........ this girl (thumb directed to my own chest).  nbd. :) actually. vbd.

After that eventful weekend I can't wait for what this week holds!

Randomocity 2.0

I found this little treasure yesterday as I was passing by the copy room downstairs.

We have our championship game for the Spanish Fork Women's league tonight, so hopefully we come away with another "CHAMPION" shirt rather than something like this.... haha although this is pretty funny.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday a bunch of good things happened.  I had the best conversation with Kay on a matter that has deeply troubled me lately.  She certainly hit the point right on!  (I was going to use a hammer and nail reference, but couldn't quite figure out how it was worded.... it's early)  I love that feeling when someone completely gets you and makes a comment that feels like they picked it straight from your brain.  That's why I've got my besties :) 

"Matilda: I became...

Hansel: What?

Matilda: Bulimic.

Zoolander: You can read minds?"

Thought process for above movie quote:  Best friends are like mind readers --> instant movie quote recollection, "You can read minds?" --> google search --> insert quote --> Realizing that this quote doesn't fit like I thought it would....  Oh well.  :)

ANYWAYS, incident #2 from yesterday happened when my dad and I were filling up the blue bird with gas.  Since he's fancy and gets his gas for like $1.25 (it used to be 69 cents not too long ago), there are limited places that offer this gas to such special people.   One place is the Flying J.  Filling up next to us was a man from somewhere that gave him an awesome accent.  He made a comment at our price for gas and chuckled.  He continued on to say that he spends about $700.00 every day on gas.  Hmm..... I think I'm feeling a lot better about Veronica's drinking habits.  She and I would have to split if she ran that sort of bill.  Things are always better when they are put in perspective ya know?

Next up, I had a strange thought this morning while we were driving to work.  Here it goes. 

Why do we call toasted bread, toast? 

"Pause for effect"

If we used the same formula as present above for naming food items then scrambled eggs would be called scramble, creamed corn would be called cream, boiled potatoes would be called boil and the list could go on and on. 

My conclusion, we are weird. 

Second conclusion, this probably came about because someone was too lazy to say toasted bread, so they shortened it.  This person obviously had to be extremely good looking and had great style, so everyone jumped on the bandwagon.  Now, 20 years later and everyone in the world calls it toast.  Okay maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but who knows where it really came from, and I think my conclusion is quite a possibility.

P.S. Anyone pick up on the 2nd movie quote....? We just watched it on Sunday.... it's possibly one of my favorites. A gold star to whoever can guess the movie!

Muscle Men

The packing, loading, unloading, unpacking routine of moving has become quite tiresome the past week... However, the apartment is starting to look fantastic, and I am loving every second of living with Kaylyn! Soon Anisa and Tycee will move in and it will be a non stop PART-AY! Yesterday it came time to move the TV from my house to the apartment. No big deal right? NBD. Well any normal TV, or even a relatively bigger TV would have been do-able. Na, we like to super-size things around here. :) Remember the old wide screen TVs? Before they made the flat screens that you hang on a wall? Yeah these old ones they decided to make as big and bulky as possible, and as a bonus they weigh a bajillion pounds. Big selling point for more man points I guess? Anyways, my parents were getting rid of their old wide screen TV and mentioned that they might just take it to the DI. Light bulb.

"Could.... I have the TV?"

"If you can find some big buff guys to take it to your apartment, sure."

Excitement started to build inside of me as I thought of how many conversations I'd be able to start with some strapping young men, such as: "Hey, what's your name? Handsome Rob? Great, I'm Hailey, and I have a big screen TV." Instant connection. Genius right? Besides attracting big TV loving men, it'll be great to fill up some of the space in our big living room, and it'll be awesome to watch my shows on the big screen! Well I was able to round up Karlie's strapping husband Jacob, my strong pops and Kaylyn's dad brought his man strength along with the truck. They lifted that large mass with their super strength like it was no one's business, we tied it down and were off! Trent met Kaylyn, Jake and I at my apartment to help get it to the third floor. Oh yeah did I forget to mention that? Weird, I seem to keep forgetting to tell people that kindly agree to help me move heavy things that I live on the third floor...

Well the first flight of stairs went fantastic! The second and third we took a little slower but even then they lifted better than any National Weight Lifter I've ever seen. By our rest stop on the second floor I was so racked with guilt for putting these men through this and I was trying to come up with something that could repay them for all their hard work. Coldstone? Dinner? A new car? After a few more grunts and hoists we made it! It fit perfectly in our apartment and again the excitement came back for all the future movie nights we will be hosting.

I blog about this for two reasons. The first being to document that the previously impossible feat of carrying a massive TV up 3 flights of stairs is in fact possible, and secondly to publicly thank Jake, Trent, and the two dads for all their muscular man-ness. These guys are great! I am so grateful for your willingness and quick thought to serve. Hopefully you will get a lot of blessings in the days to come for this.

Movie anyone? :)

Tangled

Okay okay.... Princess and the Frog previously was my favorite Disney princess movie until this came out.

It is so stinking funny!! I love all the characters in this movie, especially this guy. haha so great!

Kay, D rag and I saw it last night in 3D at the not so dollar theater. There were a few cool 3D parts that I had to sit on my hands to resist from reaching out and grabbing the lantern (oh wait I did actually reach out and grab for it), but for the most part 3D isn't anything toooooo crazy. It is pretty cool that we have the ability to view things in 3D though! The best part is that I kept my 3D glasses, and when I put them on outside of the movie theater everything around me is still in 3D!! It's so great! ;)

Really one of the biggest reasons why I love this movie is because for once Disney made a princess movie with a full family. Usually all Disney movies have only one parent around, but this one Rapunzel had both parents and they were both fantastic people! At least I assume they were as they were the King and Queen... although those two weren't very chatty... Granted Rapunzel did live with the crazy lady that kidnapped her for 18 years, but still, she found her family and they all lived happily ever after!

P.S. I just researched all on the kidnapping statute for my research class, so I can tell you whether or not this actually constituted a kidnapping if it were to take place in Utah. Fascinating, I know.

So at the conclusion of this post I would like to recommend this movie to each and every one of you and that a happily ever after will surely come shortly thereafter!

P.P.S. wanna know something else super great?!

ANISA IS COMING TO UTAH TODAY!!!!!!!!

Hooray!! Sheesh we have such a good weekend ahead of us. Let the fun begin!