Ten Favorite Things - That Special Someone

I am so excited to finally be linking up with Brianna over at Endlessly Beloved! 

To be honest, when I first heard of this link up, I didn't know if I could do it. D and I are having a really rough time right now. We have so much going on in our lives and not enough time together to figure everything out. But now I see that that is precisely the reason why I need to do this link up. Despite all our hard times, I love that man, and it's always good to reflect on why. So here are my 10 favorite things about him:

1. He loves me - I know that's cheesy, but it's an amazing feeling to be so loved by another person. To know that no matter what trials we are going through, he loves me.

2. His humor - He can always make me laugh, even if he's not meaning to. He has a very sarcastic sense of humor, but I love it. I also love that he gets my sense of humor...or not. I'm pretty sure they are just pity laughs, but that makes me love him even more.

3. He's supportive - I have been feeling incredibly insecure about my new full-time job. But he has been so incredibly supportive of me and what I am doing, and I honestly don't think I could do it without him.

4. His determination - He is determined to do well in everything he does and to be a better person. He fails sometimes, just like everyone else, but he has enough determination to see where he went wrong and try again. 

5. He's outgoing - When we first started dating, I would have been perfectly fine with staying inside all day and lounging around. He always wanted to get up and out and do something. And I love him for that, because he has made me a more outgoing person.

6. His smile - I don't know what it is, but that man's smile just makes my heart happy. It's so charming, and my favorite time to see him smile is when we see each other for the first time after being apart. I just melt into his arms.

7. He cares - I am a girl. I get emotional. If I had it my way, I would be told every second of every day how amazing I am (because I am, duh). But that's not always how relationships work - we're busy, tired, we argue, etc. But every time I question things, he turns around and tells me/shows me just how much he truly cares about me.

8. We can joke around - I love that we can joke around with each other and still know that we love each other. I like to make fun of him because he's scared of anything he can't control (roller coasters, sky diving, etc). He likes to make fun of me for not always understanding jokes (he's constantly saying "you don't get it baby")

9. His arms - Our relationship is in no way all about the physical stuff, but there is nothing better than being wrapped in a big hug from him. Along with his smile, it's the best thing ever to get that first hug after months apart. There is something so safe and comforting about being in his arms.

10. We just...work - I don't think there is any one thing I can say makes us so good together. We are different in so many ways, including what we each consider being "adventurous" and "daring". But we are also so alike, including that we would both love to travel the world.

I could think of more, of course, but this is called TEN favorite things. Thank you for letting me be cheesy and talk all about my love!

Someday I Will

Isn't there always something you would like to do eventually? I find that I pack all the things I want to do in my "someday" box, only to look at as I'm putting more things into it. But hey, if we didn't have dreams then we might not ever do anything. Right? Yeah, that's what I'll say. So here are the things I'll get around to someday, I pinky promise?!

Someday I Will: Learn how to put a proper outfit together.

I'm definitely not a fashion blogger, if you couldn't already tell by the zero times I have posted a "What I'm Wearing" post. Actually, I don't particularly like fashion. I like cute clothes, but I've never been up-to-date on all the biggest trends. I'm usually the girl who buys what everyone else got at least a year ago. Currently, the closest I have gotten to putting a proper outfit together is through what I post on my Pinterest board.

But someday I'll put an outfit together that looks like this, and I will be proud of myself.

Someday I Will: Learn how to do my makeup.

I kind of just throw things on my face and hope I look good. I can watch as many tutorials as I want but I still can't seem to get it right. But one day Dillon and I will go out on a date and my face will look perfect and all will be right with the world.

Currently me doing my make up looks a little like this...even though I'm not drunk.

Someday I Will: Be able to cook with more than three ingredients. 

My most popular blog post is this three ingredient crock pot chicken tacos. Because it's easy and delicious. But someday I will be able to whip something together with more, like four, ingredients and it won't come out looking like a Pinterest fail. 

Someday I Will: Be able to walk somewhere without tripping over my own feet. 

Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this on a daily basis. I'm just slightly over almost falling on my face and then trying to look around to see if anyone saw me. They did. 

Someday I Will: Learn to paint the nails on my right hand as well as those on my left. 

Can anyone actually do this?? Magical people I'm sure. The amount of time it takes me to do my right hand while still getting horrendous results is just ridiculous. Also, maybe one day I'll actually keep my nails nice and polished instead of calling my chipped nail polish "abstract." 

Someday I Will: Do a 5k and like it. 

I hate running. I always have and I probably always will. So why do I even want to run a 5k? I honestly don't know...except for all the cool kids are doing it and I just want to join in on what is apparently considered fun.

^^How I want to look.

^^How I will most likely look.

Someday I Will: Live Abroad and love life more than I ever have.

Backpacking across Europe, surfing in Australia, sipping tea in England, and taking the typical picture with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Those will all happen someday and it will be amazing.

Someday I will: Come up with more dreams and actually do them. 

I do have my 30x30 which I am determined to finish and now I have this. I hope I never stop having dreams and desires and I hope I always find a way to accomplish them, even if they are as ridiculous as not tripping over my own two feet.

Another Weekend Report

As I type this I am listening to James Taylor on vinyl and sipping on some Watermelon Smirnoff w/ Sierra Mist; and outside a thunder storm is rolling in! I love monsoon season in Arizona. It is actually my favorite "season" - watching the rain pour and hearing the thunder roll...just amazing! If my computer wasn't about to die I would totally relocate myself outside to write this post.

The view from my front porch - a lot prettier in person, but you get the idea!

Anyways, I had yet another wonderful weekend! I have gone home every weekend this summer which, even though it is a lot of driving, has been really nice. Since I'm "stuck" in Tucson working Monday-Friday I think it is really good for me to go home and hang out with my friends and family.

Saturday

As soon as I got home me and my sister ran a few errands. It was the first time this summer I realized just how incredibly hot it is in Arizona right now. Since we were in and out of the car I could not cool down! I love Arizona, but only when I don't have to go out in this summer heat.

As a late birthday present Sarah bought me a capo so we rushed home, ate some Chick-fil-A (I have mentioned before that it is one of my happy foods, right??), and then played some guitar together! I now "know" three songs!

I really need to start using my camera instead of my iPhone...such crap quality!

Saturday night I hung out with this beautiful girl. I know you have probably heard enough about her, but I can't help but mention her in almost every post because I'm just so sad she's leaving me next weekend. :(

We ended up going to the casino with her wonderful mama! It was her first time going to the casino and my first time since turning 21 (Dillon and I went to a casino while on the cruise). I have to say that one time actually helped me a lot because instead of losing money I won about $70! I know, high roller here. ;)

Afterwards we went back to my house, had a couple drinks and "watched" Gangster Squad with my sister and her friend Klay. I say "watched" because we ended up just talking the entire time. But it was a really awesome night just hanging out.

All I have to say to this is "hahaha!"

Sunday

A lazy day spent watching movies and TV shows, playing the guitar, eating Papa Johns Pizza, and redesigning my blog! I hope you like it - it's just a little more crisp, if that makes any sense.

This week should be a good one! Today was one of the best days my participant has had at work in a long time! Then we get July 4th off of work, which will be nice especially because it's just a random day in the middle of the week, which makes having a day off seem even better. Hopefully I'll do something exciting on the 4th so I can tell you all about it! :)

Link Up: Mingle Monday

Weekend Happenings

This past weekend was a fun and relaxing one. I love that my job is a Monday-Friday job so I still get to enjoy the weekends without any stress.

Friday

A nice relaxing night with my roommate Brittany.

We watched I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and Jumper. I hadn't seen either of these movies before (shame on me) and I really enjoyed both of them! Adam Sandler is always amazing, then throw in Kevin James and you automatically have a hit. 

Saturday

Drove home around noon and hung out with my sister and her friend Klay. She has been all by her lonesome since the rest of my family has moved up to North Dakota for the summer. It was strange going home and not actually seeing most of my family, but it was nice to see the sister, none the less.

And then there was Saturday night.

Went out with these two lovely ladies, who you may recognize from this post! It was my first time going out with them and we had an amazing time! I have known both of them since my freshman year of college and although I have been fairly close with Sayra since then, Meghan and I just started getting close this past year.

In all honesty, I love being 21. But it's really not all about the drinking. It's fun to be out and socialize with friends and just have a great time. We started at Handlebar, which is the first place I went to when I first turned 21 and then we went to a place called Cue Club because Meghan had some friends there and they had billiards, so it was fun just sitting and watching the game!

Sunday

I had to wake up bright and early to head back home to help my sister irrigate. Our house is on two acres of land so instead of the convenient sprinkler system most people have, we actually have to open up some ports and let the water pour through for five hours! What's nice is that we only have to go out there a few times to open and close ports, so it's not like we are out there in the sun for five hours straight. During that time we just watched TV and Sarah played some guitar for me!

She recently learned how to play I Won't Give Up by Jason Mraz which is just a beautiful song in general, and even more beautiful when it's my sister playing and singing. I told her that she has to play it at my wedding. :)

And that was my weekend! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well, and that the week hasn't been too harsh on you!

Linking Up: Mingle Monday and Weekend Shenanigans

Tid + Bits

Here are some tid + bits of life!

Honestly not too much has been going on around here.

The wedding has been the highlight of my life lately, but I'll let you enjoy my not-so-exciting life with some pictures. :)

We went on a field trip to the local zoo last week at camp! It was really nice to get out of the J and our regular routine. Her favorite thing was watching the fish, which was unfortunate because I greatly dislike fish when they are massive and ugly. We probably spent a good 45 minutes of our 2 hour trip watching the fish. Anything to make her happy though! When we did finally venture out, I was super excited to see the elephants. Of course, she was incredibly uninterested in elephants, but she loved the xylophone right outside of the exhibit!

I made this picture smaller because, well, who really wants to see a scorpion that large? My dad and I were walking around our property and he lifted up an old boat tube that was in the dirt, and this sucker went running from underneath it. You probably can't tell, but the thing is huge! It is the second largest scorpion I have ever seen. And apparently it just wasn't my night because shortly after, as I was packing Tuck up to bring him home with me, a huge black widow spider climbed out of the towel that was under his tank right by my hand. It was so scary and I was paranoid all night that it had bitten me without me knowing and I was going to lose my hand or something. A little dramatic? No - fully warranted!

I am loving my new bathroom! I recently moved...rooms. I am still in the same house but since two of my roommates moved out I moved across the house into the master bedroom! Due to my lazy nature busy schedule I haven't been able to fully organize my bedroom, but I think my bathroom looks damn good! ;) 

Speaking of roommates, my amazing new roommates got me this record player for my birthday! They knew I wanted one ever since we went to Goodwill and I found a record player. I really wanted to buy it (it was only $7!) but I put it down for literally ten seconds and some guy came and swooped it up. So tragic. But now that I have this beauty I am so happy! Then my daddy so generously gave me all his records! I decided that I would listen to every single record he gave me - currently I'm jammin' to REO Speedwagon!

Last night I went to Pasco Kitchen & Lounge with a couple friends. This place was the cutest, and they only use/serve local ingredients. I had some mini tacos and then my drink is on the left, which is a Boss Lady's Strawberry Fields (Bombay Sapphire gin, house-made strawberry cordial, Belstar sparkling wine, freshly squeezed lemon). It was so yummy! My friend Sayra had a Peach Barrel (Woodford Reserve Bourbon, muddled peach and mint leaves, Benedictine, freshly squeezed lemon juice, peach and old fashioned bitters) and then Becca had a delicious water. I love her response to when a waiter asks if she wants a drink, "I'm 20 and Mormon, so no thank you!" Haha, she is super adorable, and the ultimate DD. ;)

The above three pictures are a few that Dillon has sent me from Germany! I'm not going to lie, I am super jealous! He seems to be having an amazing time - he does have class every morning during the week but they have done a lot of fun tours of the cities. As happy as I am for him, I would by lying if I said I don't have a countdown for when he finally comes back to the States. This nine hour time difference thing is just not working for me!

source

Lastly, please keep Colorado in your thoughts and prayers as the Black Forest fire continues to blaze. It is the most destructive fire in Colorado's history, already destroying around 360 homes and is (last I heard) only 5% contained. The Waldo Canyon fire last year had my heart racing as D was evacuated from the Academy due to the fire being so close. This fire hits close to home again as my cousins were evacuated from their home a couple days ago and the fire is only about 1 mile from their home. Honestly, I have tears in my eyes just thinking about it because their home has become a kind of second home to me when I visit D, and I just can't imagine my cousin not having a home to go back to.

I am sorry to leave it on such a sad note, but I for one am happy it is finally Friday and finally pay day! I hope this Friday is joyous and that the weekend is even better!

Link Up: Crowley Party and Let's Be Friends

Summer Favorites - A Job!

Today I am linking up with Chelsea over at The Girl Who Loved to Write!

Her link-up is summer favorites, which she gave the idea of recipes, party ideas, DIYs, etc.

So I know what you're thinking, Why the heck would she put a job as a summer favorite??

I'll keep this short because I don't have pictures and I know some people just click away when it's all a bunch of words.

(No hard feelings, I do it too when I'm not in the mood to read a lot.)

Although summer is usually thought of as a time to relax, take vacations, and even sit on the couch all day, that is not what my summer is looking like.

This summer I got hired to work at the Jewish Community Center in my college town.

They hold summer camps for pretty much all ages and they do everything from a regular day camp, to sports camp, to leadership camps.

I will be working in the day camp with ages Kindergarten through 2nd grade, but specifically I will be an advocate to a participant with special needs.

I cannot tell you how excited I am. I'm pretty much getting paid to go to camp myself, although I obviously have a lot more responsibility than just having fun.

I am really excited to be an advocate because I have taken a few special education courses and they have been some of my favorite. So much so that I am thinking of having my career be something along the lines of working with children with special needs - although I really don't know what yet.

I'm hoping that this summer job can give me some insight into what I really want to do with myself after I graduate. 

So far I have only been through Orientation. The actual camp starts on Tuesday!

And the whole point of this post is to really say that having a summer job doesn't have to be terrible! If you are doing something you love, you can definitely still have an amazing summer, even if it is filled with work. And it can possibly even turn into your summer favorite!

So go to Chelsea's blog and link up your summer favorite!

I would love to see some favorite recipes or DIY projects because my weekends are still wide open to do fun stuff like that. :)

And before I go, I'm just curious if any of you have a summer job that you genuinely enjoy? Or if you possibly had a part-time job that turned into an awesome career! Let me know, I would love to hear from you!

My First Major

Here I am, back with the From Firsts to Lasts link up!

I did this once before where I talked about the first random song that pops up on my iTunes and fun stuff like that. It was a little embarrassing, but hey, have to share that stuff too, right?

First Major in College

Early Childhood Education. And no, it is no longer my current major.

In high school I volunteered with the two and three-year-old's at my church every Sunday. I enjoyed it so much that I actually ended up being one of the teachers every other Sunday. After doing this for a year or so, I came to the incredible conclusion that I really wanted to work with kids when I "grew up." This was a huge step for me since I was still just going with my first grade dream job of being a maid.

Yes, I am being serious. I thought it would be awesome to have a belt

around my waist with all the cleaning supplies in it...

Anyways, the obvious career choice seemed to be a preschool/kindergarten teacher, and I signed right up. During my first semester of college, however, my dad talked me into becoming an Occupational Therapist. I could still work with kids, but it would be better money (really not something I care about, just for the record). So I switched my major to Psychology after looking at the pre-requisites to get into OT school, and noticed that there were a lot of overlapping classes, and I could just have a thematic minor in OT to take the rest of the classes I needed. So I should feel pretty good, right? Eh. Now I mainly just feel like this:

I really don't think I do this though...I don't want to be a therapist. But some people assume I do because of my major. I usually just smile and wave because they probably have a better idea of what they're talking about than I do.

But I'm definitely feeling like this. Even though going to OT school is still an option, I'm not ready to commit to two and a half years of expensive graduate school.

Currently I'm leaning towards working with children with special needs. If I enjoy my summer job as much as I think I will, then we'll see where this amazing Psychology degree takes me next.

As much as people make fun of psychology degrees, I do like the fact that I'm not "tied down" to one specific career path. It is keeping my options open which I think is really great. Then again I am a little defensive about it, especially since my boyfriend's family once told me that the most pointless degree to get is a psychology degree. To be fair, I was not yet a psychology major...and it's now funny because his major is Behavioral Science, which is really just a fancy way to say psychology. Yes, we are that cute couple that have the same majors. ;)

So I actually really don't feel like writing about the second question, which is First Date Success Story. It's not at all that I don't want to write about it, it's just that I feel far too lazy to do it right now. Oh my gosh, I'm so pathetic. I am literally just sitting on my couch doing nothing, and yet I'm too lazy to sit on my couch and write??

*Hangs head in shame*

If you would like to read about it, I'll turn it into my That Time I post tomorrow!

Taco Salad

Okay, this is one of my favorite foods to eat. It is so yummy, on the healthy side, and super easy to make. My mom has been making this for our family for a long time, and it is one of the few recipes I carried with me into college. Not because my mom doesn't make good food...it's because I'm usually too lazy to do anything more than mac & cheese for dinner. And not the regular kind, the Phineas and Ferb mac and cheese, thank you very much.

So here are the ingredients:

Honestly, you're just going to throw all those things in a bowl and call it good. PLEASE brown the meat. Unless you're into that kind of thing, eating raw meat and stuff. And then I would put it in the refrigerator for a while before serving. Other than that, you're golden. The brands are variable, use whatever you want. Ground turkey, ground beef, whatevs. I've used both. You can make a huge bowl and add all these things in by the handful if you have a family to serve, but since I cook for myself (this isn't really cooking, is it?) I just make one bowl at a time. 

And you can obviously eliminate or add anything you want. I haven't always made it with corn, and my mom usually adds tomatoes and red peppers to hers. It's one of those salads that you may not have thought of before, but is super easy to tailor to your taste buds.

First Thing's First

Lately I have realized that I really only post when I have something to say about me and Dillon. And as much as I love that man, and I love our adventures together, I really want this blog to be more than just me and him. He's a huge part of my life, so it's natural that I post a lot about him, but I also want to document other parts of my life. So here is a new link-up that I'm going to try out! I like this week's topics, and link-ups are always pretty fun. :)
First Pinterest Project or Recipe I Attempted I honestly don't do many pinterest projects/recipes. I want to, and I try! But it always ends up being a little too expensive for my poor college girl self. However, I have done a few, and although I don't remember which was necessarily my first, here are my most recent: Project: Memory Jar Recipe: Two-Ingredient Cookies
First Random Song That Pops up on my iTunes Since I'm at work, I just used my phone, which has a limited amount of songs. The first song that popped up is Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It by Dem Franchize Boyz. Well...that's embarrassing.
First Product I Use in the Shower The first thing I do in the shower is wash my hair. Depending on the day, that can either be with shampoo or with baking soda. (You can see why I use baking soda here.) I honestly have no idea what brand shampoo I have because I always just buy the cheapest stuff on the shelf. Have I gotten the point across that I'm a poor college student yet?? 

Pinteresting, Wouldn't You Say?

Okay, my titles are becoming totally cheesy but I have to mix it up! I hope you all are having a wonderful week. I am not happy it's already Wednesday because that means spring break is half way over! But for you who are still in school/work, YAY Wednesday!!

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Have a wonderful rest of your week, and stay inspired!