Brrr, Ice Cube Facial.

Brrr!

 

 

Recently, while reading up on every article ever written at LaurenConrad.com I found this one about ice cube facials. Oh, why was I reading LC's website? Because I love her and you are lying to yourself if you say you don't love her too.

 

 

As someone who has recently been trying to get uber-hot and healthy, I'm interested to give natural remedies like this a try whenever possible. The first couple tries I used regular, ol' (filtered) tap water. Though shiver-inducing at first, I LOVED the way my skin felt afterward! I massage my face with the ice cube in a circular motion from forehead to chin, toweled my face off (though I know should be putting the cube in a baggie while I use it), and then massaged again from chin to forehead. The whole process took about a minute and a half and it was so worth it.

 

 

I've decided to incorporate these ice cube facials into my daily skin care routine (after washing, before toner), though I am trying my hand at fancying them up. I made this week's batch of cubes with rose water (and a big note to Rhyno that says, "Do NOT use!"). I loved the scent of the rose water.

 

Over the next few weeks I plan to play with the recipe a bit to find what works best for my sensitive, combination skin. An infusion of chamomile tea? Drops of lavender oil? I'm game to try it all!

 

Have you tried ice cube facials? What's your favorite recipe?

About the Silence.

Sorry things have been a bit silent over here--nothing huge is happening just a big, ol' broken laptop.

 

Here's a fun story: baby-puppy-wrinkly Violet has been being trained to be left alone for short periods of time. Rhyno was in Milwaukee for work and I needed to, you know, brush my teeth and stuff. So I left her in the front room while I was upstairs in our bathroom. One big  CRASH! noise and nearly breaking my neck trying to fly down the stairs and there it was. My laptop that I use for blogging and Pinning and working was on the floor. Cracked screen and all. R.I.P. sweet friend. I hardly knew yee...for real. I only had it for a year.

 

Sigh, have a great weekend!

Another Photo of a Quote.

Just another graphic of a nice quote. This week has had it's share of annoyances but, after reflection, I'm ready to keep trucking along.

 

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Next week my blog will return to actual content.



To My Pickles.

Today I'm wishing the happiest of happy birthdays to my cousin who has always been more like a baby sister, Erica...or Rica...or Pickles...or Rica Pickles.

 

Ripped from her Facebook profile. I'm cool like that.

 

Growing up, Pickles spent Saturday nights at our house. I can't believe my little baby is 21 today, it makes me feel ancient and all teary-eyed. She has grown from adorable little kid to beautiful young woman. She kicked cancer's ass before the age of 10 and she is legit one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen. She is sassy and sweet and has a biting but not too biting sense of comedy that I like to think is modeled after my own (it isn't). It's like overnight she went from a teeny tot with a lollipop body (she had a big noggin) to awesome friend that I can send and received Pins from all day long. I love her so much and am proud to have her in my life.

 

Happy 21st birthday, Pickles!



A Tuesday Thought.

It has been a busy bee of a day so I don't have much to say.

(Dang, I love a good and accidental rhyme.)

So I'll just leave you with this sweet thought. I've been thinking a lot about happiness lately (aren't I always?) and I'm planning for a longer post later. All in due time.

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Happy Tuesday!

Hello Violet.

Oh, hello, Violet!

This past Thursday, after a lot of long discussions, we adopted a boxer/beagle pup from a local rescue organization. We named her Violet and she's really sweet and super snuggly and has played with every single toy we've given her. She loves to run and chase frisbees and has been rad with potty training. We are in love.

Even though my heart is still broken for my Tasha and I miss her every single second, I have fallen head over heels for Miss Violet and I'm so happy to have her. At first I felt very guilty bringing a new pup into our home after losing my girl but it has been very healing. My heart still catches when I think about T-Dolla and I can't really talk about her out loud without cryin' like a baby, but my spirits are so lifted having Violet's puppy breath in my face. 

Ahhh, puppy love!

Happy Birthday, Rhyno!

Happy 31st birthday to my favorite very old man! ;)

Thank you so much for all you do for our tiny family, you very handsome man. Thank you for your goofy jokes, crazy voices, and silly stories. Thank you for listening when I tell you really drawn-out stories with way too many details and only tuning me out like 30% of the time. Thank you for over seven years of smiles and laughter. Thank you for thinking I'm beautiful even when I don't or when I've gained weight or when I'm having a bad hair day. Thank you for supporting every dream I've ever had and for standing behind my career choices. Thank you for being the best pet-dad ever. Thank you for being a really good uncle to our nieces and nephews, it melts my heart to see how much they all love you (even when Olive thinks I am married to Erik and we have to re-explain to her that YOU are my husband and she always looks slightly disappointed). Thank you for fitting seamlessly into my life and for loving my family/friends. Thank you for coming home from happy hour drunk sometimes because it's really funny. Thank you for every single Life with Rhyno snippet you've ever said to me. Thank you for allowing me to post those snippets because they are really hilarious.

You are pretty much the best. 

Happy birthday, my love!

Swing Sets for Dayz.

So, despite not having children yet, we have a swing set in our backyard. 

The previous owners had three children so the swing set came with the house.Though a bit of an eyesore, it is totally functional. Our nieces Addie and Olive are basically in love with it--adorably whenever they stop by Addie will ask, "Can I go play on your park?" and Olive with chant-ask "Swings? Swings? Park? Swings?"

We are planning to take the set apart and move it to the other side of the yard to open up our view of the garden (and maybe make room for a hammock...please?). While thinking about it I asked Rhyno if we could paint it since we're taking it apart anyhow. "Sure, I don't care." Alright then! The tarp has needed to be replaced for a while due to storm/snow damage and I figure if it's going to be a staple in our yard anyway, why not make it super cute?

I've been turning to, where else, Pinterest for inspiration and I am definitely feeling inspired!

 

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I love the detail on this--I'm hoping to paint the monkey bars in a rainbow and then add tiny white hearts to each bar. 

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I love the color! And the grown-up swing! And the flower boxes! Yes, this. All day long. Having a wooden roof would help the whole "tarp getting damaged all winter long" issue, too.

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 I've been wanting to replace one of the swings with a tire swing for a while. One of the best parks by my house growing up had a tire swing and I desperately petitioned my parents to install one in our yard. "But all the kids will love it! I'll be so popular!" 7 year old S. Guff, you are sad. 

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Fun story: when my mom was a kid she tore her face open on a slide. TORE. HER. FACE. WIDE. OPEN. Since hearing that story as a kid I've never been a huge fan but, oh!, the possibilities for cuteness. I'd love to add a little pool at the bottom to create a summertime water slide. We actually tried this summer with our current set and a tiny blow-up pool at the bottom but our slide was bolted down so A & O had to slide down, hit a big bump, and then kinda flail around into the kiddie pool. Fail.  

Also, if you Google "painted slide" a bunch of gun photos pop up. Happy Thursday!

Things of the Current Variety.

 

I am currently...

....eating Body for Life's Cool Taco Salad (I sub Boca Crumbles for the ground beef). It is SO good! Plus, it's easy to make big batches of it and throw into tupperware for the week's lunches. I eat it with one multi-grain pita and cucumber slices. Filling, delicious, and chock full o' goodness.

...making door stops. Now that the weather is totally gorgeous and amazing I have happily turned off our air conditioning for the year. Having the windows open on a breezy, Fall-like day is one of my very favorite things ever...but our doors loudly slamming shut every time a big gust blows through? Not my very favorite (especially if either cat gets stuck in the room and their loud cries don't subside until I free them). I've been scouting online to find a cheap, cute way to make door stops to match each room. 

...listening to Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus (this is the audio, not the nearly NSFW music video). I know, I know. You are asking yourself, "why?!" Why? Cause I dig it a lot. I will say it forever that I like (almost) all types of music and sometimes that includes a really mainstream, poppy power ballad. 

...reading Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar by Kelly Oxford. I've been on the waiting list at the library for this bad boy since it came out a couple months ago. When I finally got the email that it was my turn to check it out, I was psyched! Um, that feeling didn't last very long. Though not terrible, it wasn't as funny as a lot of other short story/memoir books I've read and some of the stories dragged on a bit. Next on my list? A couple of reads by the wonderful Nora Ephron.

...hoping for good, good, good things. :)

...watching old shows on Hulu! Thank goodness for Hulu. I found I Love Lucy (my favorite TV show of all time), Bewitched, and Mary Tyler Moore. Watching these old shows draws me back into my childhood and they are three of my top picks. On top of that, Rhyno hooked up my Hulu account to our PS3 in the basement so I can treadmill jog to Lucille Ball on our big screen. I will never believe TV will be as funny or authentic as it was in the good, ol' days. I have seen every single episode of I Love Lucy at least 20 times and I still laugh. My mom and I used to watch it every single night from age 2 to 20, watching it makes me think of her and then makes me think of awesomeness.

...loving having a cup of coffee as a treat once a week instead of depending on it every morning. I know, I was surprised too. I mentioned that I had planned to cut coffee off of my grocery list for a little while and I have stuck to that. For the first week-ish I felt totally sluggish around 3pm every single day like clockwork. Around 6pm I'd get my daily headache. Since those caffeine withdrawal side effects have subsided, I have actually enjoyed not waiting for the coffee to heat up in the morning and, hey, no coffee breath! On Saturday morning I asked Rhyno to grab me a black coffee at McDonald's while he was running errands and it was so nice to have java as a low-calorie treat!

...thankful for so many good, helpful, thoughtful people in my life. It always gives me that melty feeling when people go out of their way to do something sweet for me. It really touches me to know there are people rooting for me and people are willing to extend a hand without any end-game. Dang, people are so rad sometimes. 

If you also partake in Currently posts, please link up in the comments!

The Secret Garden (Except Not a Secret).

Gardens all over the damn place, right?

One of my favorite things about warm weather is our herb garden. When we moved into the little rented condo that we (loved so much and) called home for two years we decided to plant a summer herb garden on our balcony. When we moved into our forever home we decided to plant another on our patio. It's so nice to have basil to pluck for fresh pesto and rosemary for roasted veggies all summer long. It helps save money and I love adding a healthy, fresh flavor to our daily dishes.

So when summer's over, there goes the garden. We've tried a few times to move our little garden indoors but our jerky cats have proved that motion invalid. They will knock over and chew whatever plant life we try to bring indoors. In his six years Joodle has shattered four vases because his love of chewing on flowers is just so powerful. What a butt.

Recently though I thought of a solution: something under glass. I'm trying to get Rhyno to build our kitchen window out and cover it with glass so we can slide the slats open to water it and it'll be a tiny greenhouse in our kitchen. He hasn't been receptive to it yet but, hey, I'm still working on it.

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Do you have pets and keep plants indoors? What's your secret?

Oil Pullin'.

I mentioned before that I am interested in detoxing but I can't really handle a few day detox. Because of that, I'm always looking for ways to get the toxins out of my body without going six days drinking kale juice and eating chia seeds.Recently I've started oil pulling with coconut oil every morning before breakfast. I'd read about oil pulling a few times and have some friends who swear by it but I was always eye-rolly about trying it myself. 

After getting a cavity filled for the second time, it was still causing me some pain (thanks, bad tooth genetics!). Everyday, despite brushing my teeth after every meal, I would have a dull pain around my tooth so I decided to give oil pullin' a try. The first day was...weird. I took a big spoonful of coconut oil and nearly barfed. Since then I've learned to take smaller spoonfuls and swish the oil while doing other things (seriously, who wants to stand at the counter doing nothing for 15 minutes). I'm not sure if it's mind tricks or what but I've had less pain, my mouth feels cleaner, and my teeth look a bit brighter.After giving it a try for a week, I've decided to include oil pulling unto my daily routine.

Do you pull?

Birthdays Should Be a Week Long.

My Rhyno is turning 31 one week from today! I believe in celebrating the whole ding dang week so I'm going to do just that.

 

Love. His. Guts.

My family has always celebrated Birthday Week. Nothing huge, but you get to boss everyone else around for seven days and you get special treatment (growing up it was no chores and you get to pick dinner). The only catch is you have to remember to announce it is Birthday Week one exact week before your big day and no one can remind you. If you forget, you forget. Rhyno forgets this every single year. Like clockwork, the night before his birthday will come and he rues the day he forgot to say it was his Week.

Surprise breakfast in bed!

Last year was a pretty big deal (30, am I right?) so I threw him a big birthday/housewarming party. This year is tricky though because it's not the big milestone but I am a birthday-aholic so I want to celebrate the crap out of it. I decided to be kind and remind him of his Birthday Week and give him one surprise and one gift every day until his big 3-1. Today was day one so I gave him a silly gift (a ninja Post-It holder for his desk) and brought him a nice, hot, surprise breakfast in bed. I will admit, this is hard on a weekday because he has to get up so early to get to work. I had to set my alarm on vibrate (so he wouldn't stir) and then sleep holding my phone! Luckily, it worked. I got up at 4:30am and made him low sugar-gluten free blueberry waffles with no sugar syrup and light butter with hot tea and ice cold water on the side. Sheesh. 

Have a great weekend!

MasterChef Party.

So, I am pretty much obsessed with Gordon Ramsey's MasterChef. Rhyno and I just happened to catch it as it premiered four seasons ago and have been hooked ever since. This year was especially tense since my two favorites (James and Bri!) were eliminated too soon but I was deeply rooting against the sore loser Natasha.

Luca, forever. I love me some underdog.

My cousin-like-a-sister Samantha (who is also an MC fanatic) and I decided to have our own Mystery Box Challenge to celebrate the MasterChef finale. We included her momma and each of us would receive 5 different ingredients to make into a dish.

My ingredients (sent by my Aunt Julie)? Bacon, a baguette, rum extract, apples, and sweet potatoes. I immediately decided to do a dessert bruschetta (or as Italian Luca would say "bru-CHETT!"). I toasted my baguette with a homemade rum butter and cinnamon-sugar topping. I candied bacon, pan-fried apples, and made a sweet potato sauce to create the bruschetta experience. 

My plating. I do not hide my allegiance.

Sam's: A delicious tofu stir-fry

A.J.'s: Rice balls and mango salsa with fried chopsticks.

I won plating but A.J. wound up winning the taste competition. But, happily enough, Luca won the whole she-bang!

09/11.

09/11. 

We are twelve years out but still the date makes my heart catch in my throat. 

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Cheesy as it is, I have played this remix over and over today, as it played on loop on 09/12/01. I can remember sitting in my childhood bedroom listening to it on the radio and just sobbing while holding hands with my best friend Sam.

I think back to how naive and pure I was before that day. I never even thought about terrorism, about hatred so many countries over. I had never seen images that shook my core so much, images of people falling out of buildings. I didn't think about how much public servants actually sacrifice, about the impact war makes on each civilian. I am so thankful for my cousins that serve.

I can remember sitting in Social Studies class at Mother McAuley, next to my friend Kaitlin, when the first planes hit. Our teacher, Sister Nancy, wheeled a TV into our classroom and immediately fell to her knees as the second plane hit. She loudly prayed for the victims and prayed for mercy for the offenders. I will never forget that she prayed for mercy and she prayed for forgiveness. In the face of absolute terror, she wished for mercy. It was a bittersweet and beautiful moment in my youth. Every 09/11 I will think of her hope amidst devastation. Help those who have been led astray, help those who have been hurt, help those who need it most.

Though not a Republican, I will never forget our (at the time)  President's speech. "These acts shattered steel but they cannot shatter the American resolve. (We) were targeted because we are the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity for the world and no one will keep that light from shining."

I hope you remember the importance of 09/11 today. I hope you took a moment of silence and took a moment of love and a moment of fun.

Girl, Look at the Body (for Life).

HEY! I'm on week two of Body for Life!

In week one of the program, I definitely had some slip-ups (are you surprised?) but managed to lose close to 4 pounds. As I mentioned before, I was really craving some structure (in addition to craving everything else) and I have felt so comfortable joining the BFL challenge for the third time in my life! Writing out every meal and every workout was a huge help--it makes compiling my coupons and making a grocery list a breeze plus there isn't any "What's for dinner?" panic at 6pm.

Homemade healthified strawberry cheesecake (recipe via). Pretty good!

As much as I wanted to beat myself up for slipping a couple times this week, I was actually motivated by the fact that I never missed a workout and I lose 4 pounds. It gave me confidence to really stick to the program this week and see if I can land an even bigger number. A huge goal of mine is to keep my workouts fun. One of the main draws of the program is that the upper body and lower body workouts are actually pretty enjoyable...for me anyway. I throw on old episodes of The Hills and away I lift. But the required three-times-a-week cardio? Ugh. Cardio. I know, I'm a baby. You are probably on hour two of your sixth run of the week and I'm whining. Welcome to who I am and why I need to lose weight.

I have always known that if I could just dedicate myself to 45 minutes of cardio per day I'd see fantastic results. After our wedding we used some of the money we received to buy an elliptical that went largely unused for a few years until we used it in a trade with my aunt to get a vintage stereo (I regret nothing). The elliptical was loud and, frankly, not fun. Last year we bought a treadmill because, if anything, Rhyno-the-former-soccer-all-star will use it to run. I have used it more than I thought I ever would but I still catch myself watching the seconds tick by until I'm done. So, in getting back into the swing of BFL I made a list of cardio that isn't boring--things like riding my bike, swimming, and walking along the river. I'm happy to report I nailed cardio everyday last week and even got Rhyno to join in on the bike ridin' fun. I'm still unsure of what I'll do to get my heart rate up once the weather cools down so...

What's your favorite indoor cardio workout?

Things That Make Me Deliriously Happy.

There is this crazy phenomenon that happens on Monday mornings...people act hella grouchy. So to counteract the inevitable "Is it Friday yet?!" social media posts here are some things that make me deliriously happy...

 The promise of Fall! I love that Fall is just around the corner--pumpkin everything, trips to the local farm to pick up Autumn delights, sweaters, boots, and walking out of a chilly breeze into a warm house. My very favorite time of year for sure. 

A glass of bubbly with my husband! Rhyno and I always try to do something fun each week.  We had planned a date night for Friday but after learning Rhyno had a union meeting, we decided to just have a glass of wine and watch a couple episodes of The League when he got home instead. Please watch that show, especially if you love football and/or laughing your ass off.

My nieces and nephews! Addie started pre-school last week and it was like, "Wait. When did someone tell you you could get older?" Nearly three years ago, she was the teeny tiny flower girl in our wedding. Her momma sent me a photo of her wearing the dress the other day. And then I died from too much cuteness. Gosh, where does the time go?

 Evenings in our backyard with a book! Though I'm looking forward to Fall, I am trying to soak in every last second of summer warmth while I still can. After dinner, I've been slipping out to the patio with a book and a cup of tea to read until it gets too dark. 

 Birthdays! I love celebrating birthdays--mine and everyone else's too. Rhyno's turning 31 in under two weeks and I'm trying to plan something really fun. I tried getting Bears tickets but DANG! Expensive! His birthday falls on a Friday so I'd love to spend the whole weekend celebrating my manzilla with everyone. Just us going to a beer tasting and dinner on Friday, a movie downtown and dinner at Gyu Kaku with my parents and his mom on Saturday, and wrapping up with a boozy brunch at home on Sunday.

 

Creating things! A few weeks ago, when I reorganized my whole world, I found all of these fabric scraps and other DIY goodies. It sparked the urge to start creating things again--fall wreaths, little stuffed animals, and Christmas presents. Let's get sewing!

Puppies! This little bug spent the night at our house last week. It has been so, so quiet without Tasha Boo, we are still missing her something awful. It was nice to have a pup in the house again. She made herself right at home, snuggling on the couch with us and playing with our best friends' dogs. Man, dogs are just good for your heart.

What makes you deliriously happy?

It's the Freakin' Weekend.

Sorry that I quoted an R. Kelly song in my title. No matter how excited you are for the weekend, no one should ever do that. 

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Who doesn't love the weekend!? Oh, probably people that work on the weekends, you're right. I'm not one of them and, for some reason because I don't have conventional hours right now so I'm not tethered to a desk 9-5 M-F, I'm really excited to have some play time. Tonight I have the house to myself while Rhyno is at a union meeting, we're hitting up a town fair with my parents tomorrow, I made a small to-do list to chip away at, and hopefully we can squeeze in some relaxing here or there. 

What are your weekend plans?

Cat Fancy.

Just because sometimes furry friends make you smile real big. Kira & Joodle are basically like two toddlers--constantly getting into things (my sock drawer no matter how tightly I shut it), knocking things over (J has broken 4 vases in his lifetime), and being loud (not crying, just a consistent and squeaky meow all hours of the day). But they crack me up and prove that pets are good for the soul.

And also, who doesn't love cats? (Be quiet if you don't)

I say cuddling but it was probably more like a death-match wrestlemania fight.

 Modest! And classy!

 Do you want to squeeze him? He won't let you but he is super cute.

 Um, sometimes Kira pretends to be Ray Charles. 

A long time ago we started a running joke that Kira is always drunk--cats are supposed to be graceful and she falls off things a lot. Rhyno was working out-of-state a few years ago and I jokingly sent this photo to him and said Kira missed him so much she was hitting the bottle again. Long story short: we're both huge dorks.

Did I really just post all about cats? Aye carumba. Cat lady, table of one!

Airplane Dreams (Like Hoop Dreams But Way Different).

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Today's been kind of a rough one...actually this week has been. Things with my career are wonky to put it lightly and I just have a mild case of the poor me's. Oh, did I mention I fell a bashed my head like a total rock star? I'm not concussed...at least I don't think so.

So, what do I do when things aren't so sunny and I want to cheer up? Well, honestly, I plan my Body for Life free day (wine and pasta, I'm coming at you like a spider monkey). But then I daydream about places I want to go. You remember that line in While You Were Sleeping about how she plans vacations she'll never take? That's me forever and ever...except I actually plan to take them someday. Whenever I'm feeling a bit down, now instead of turning to white flour and carbs, I add to my travel dreams on my Adventures Pinterest board.

I actually consider myself quite lucky to have travel to quite a few places even before the age of 21--I've seen Alaska in the summertime, Italy (I think a chunk of my heart is still there), Spain, France (remind me to tell you sometime about the world's craziest home-stay experience in Nice), Monaco, Andorra (which is adorable and no one has really heard of), Canada, Mexico, and plenty of our good, ol' States. But I still have wanderlust...maybe I'll visit...

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Greece always looks like a fairytale to me. Plus, I'd like to wander the stomping grounds of the Katsopolis family.

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London, what a beaut. I did a brief stopover at Heathrow when I was a Junior Ambassador but I didn't get to see anything outside of those airport walls. PS: Have I done enough travel bragging yet? Sheesh. 

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Hawaii, especially during the lantern festival. I may just give my right arm to hike volcanoes and lay on the Hawaiian beach all day.

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New York City! I love a good skyline and, surprisingly, I've never been to NYC. I've heard great things and hope to go someday soon and do ever dang touristy thing possible. 

Where do you most want to go?

Like a Good Pie.

I once read something like, "Like a good pie, your past is always something you're hungry for" and it stuck with me. 

Yours truly circa 1988-ish

Sometimes I feel this nagging guilt that I haven't done enough over the years--I know, I know. I love my life and I'm still so young and yadda yadda. I agree, my life is beautiful and I have so many things still to look forward to. I just sometimes thumb through old photos and wish I had been more adventurous, less guarded, tried more things, worried less about things. I wish I had done that semester abroad in Italy that I had planned to or that I'd tried harder for that internship at the Goodman Theatre. I wish I'd spent more time being honest and open, less time watching television or being too shy to go to lunch with that group of girls. This is mostly a product of that time of the month emotions (oh, too much information?) but it's definitely been chomping at me a little bit.

I know it's that whole if I knew then what I know now thing, but I do wish there were things I'd have known. Life is all about experiences, I think I've missed quite a few because I was too lazy or afraid or self conscious. I was talking to a friend about this and her answer was simple, "So start now." I've made it a little goal to have one "experience" every month--something that just helps me live life fully, is all about fun, and is perhaps a tad outside of my comfort zone. Something big like finally planning that vacation we've been waiting for (Mexico? San Francisco? Wait a few years and go back to Italy?) or something small like singing karaoke in front of people and not really giving a shit if they hate it. Because they probably will (I'm pretty pitchy). 

I just want to spend less time in front of the TV or worrying about cleaning the house and more time having fun and trying new things. I am a girl and I just want to have (more cause I already have quite a bit of) fun, damn it!

You ever feel that way?

Happy Labor Day!

You know, if that's your thing and you get to observe it. 

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I hope you get a chance to enjoy this extra day of weekend goodness with a nap in the shade or long walk in your neighborhood or just doing whatever the heck you like to do on days off. I'm spending most of the day cleaning and prepping food for the work week. Don't worry, I'll make time to pour a giant glass of ice water and dive into one of the many, many books I borrowed from the library. :)