Weekend Recap (Mostly in Instagrams)

It's still technically the weekend for us, because government holiday (we had Friday off too, yay for four-day weekends!). J was supposed to leave for his trip a couple days ago but that got cancelled (more yay), so we've been having a lot of family fun this weekend! Plus some adult-type fun with friends.

Friday we took E to Coldstone, then the park (to burn off all that sugar).

Saturday a group of us went to a pumpkin patch. We rocked the (30 acre) corn maze, picked some (too many) pumpkins, then headed back for pizza, pumpkin beer, and carving. Afterward we played Apples to Apples, because that's fall-themed too, right?

Yesterday was a mostly lazy day after all that action, but E and I carved and painted her pumpkin (I carved, she painted) and we baked the seeds. 

Today has been spent actually getting stuff done (laundry and yard work has to happen sometime), but I did get a couple pics of the clouds being weird and cool.

This weekend has been most excellent, fun and relaxing. I hope you enjoyed your weekend as well!

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30 before 30

This post was inspired by a conversation I had last week with Whitney from Along The Lines Of Style. She talked about how easy it is to write a to-do list for that day, but when it comes with a long-term goal list... it's really hard. I think it's because with to-do lists, the goal is to check those things off, and if you don't, you have the next day. But with a long-term goal list... it's a scary thought, committing to checking those things off within a certain time period. And if you don't... when do you do them? The next five years? Before you die? And then you start thinking about what you want to accomplish before you die and it all turns to hell. At least that's how it is for me.

So after that conversation, it got me thinking. And I decided to sit myself down and commit to 30 things I want to accomplish before I turn 30. Since my 26th birthday is next month, that gives me just over 4 years to accomplish this list. Here it is:

1. Buy a house. I'm really looking forward to house shopping with J once we get back to Nebraska.

2. Renovate said house. I've gotten pretty good at decorating a temporary home, but I want to be able to paint walls and do renovations and make additions... all that jazz.

3. Have more children. There are days, hard days with E, that I can't imagine having more. But most days, I imagine the other theoretical children I could have and it hurts me inside that I don't have them yet. And I want to have children with my husband. I already know that he's a good step-dad, and that he will be a great dad. But I want to see him hold a newborn with that wide-eyed look of wonder on his face.

4. Go to culinary school. J and I have made a deal, that once he makes a certain rank, we'll have the extra money for me to be able to attend culinary school. This day will hopefully be very soon after we move back to Nebraska, but we'll see.

5. Open a bakery. This is what I want to do with said culinary degree. I want to open my own bakery. Whether it succeeds or fails, in the long term, is not really the point. (Though it would be really super if it succeeds.) I just want to teach my daughter (and subsequent kids) that it's okay to chase your dreams. If it succeeds, don't let it go to your head. If it fails, don't let it get to your heart.

6. Go on a honeymoon. J and I haven't had ours yet. We got married right before moving to California, so hopefully once we get back to Nebraska and things settle down again, we'll be able to take a week or two for an adventure just for us.

7. Read every book on my reading list. I have an extensive reading list, guys. Hopefully in four years I can at least read everything on it now, if not what I add between now and then.

8. Invest in a DSLR camera. I want to learn photography, at least the basics. I want to entrust myself with the care and use of a nice camera. I want to take better pictures of my daughter's life for her to remember it by. I want to take better pictures for the blog. I think this would be a good investment for numerous reasons.

9. Run a half marathon. I'm not going for the full marathon because again, committing to that is intimidating. But considering I've run a 10k at this point, 4 years is long enough to train for 13.1 miles. Right?

10. Get fit. I'm not going to weigh (haha, get it?) myself down with a specific number of pounds that I want to lose before I'm 30, due to the wanting to have more kids thing. That would make it really difficult to keep up with. So I just want to be in shape at 30. That's a decent goal, right?

11.  Get a second dog. Our dog right now, a corgi, has severe only dog syndrome. I really want to get him a buddy, but J and I agreed that that has to wait until we're back in Nebraska. (It seems like a lot of things have to wait until we're back in Nebraska.)

12. Learn a new subject. I'm not talking of the "learn a new thing every day" variety. I mean I want to have a working knowledge of something that I have little to no current knowledge on right now. Photography doesn't count, and culinary doesn't count, because those are both covered in other points.

13. Learn about wine pairings. I guess this could fall under the "learn a new subject" point, but whatever, I'll push myself to learn something else. I love wine, and I love food. I would love to learn about wine as it relates to food.

14. Build up a nest egg. This one is boring, but essential. I don't know what the bottom dollar amount is at this point in time that I'd like to have before 30, but having enough saved away for when some disaster happens with the house mentioned above, and for the kids' college fund, would be amazing.

15. Pay back my parents. My parents have supported me a lot LOT through the last few years, between dropping out of college and getting a divorce. I would love to show some appreciation and personal growth by being able to pay them back the money they gave me and never expected to see back.

16. Start a family recipe book. There are a lot of my own family's recipes that have been lost due to not being properly recorded. I want to have a recipe book ready to give my daughter(s)/son(s) when they get married so that they can make their husbands/wives the same meals I made for them growing up, and they can have a little taste of home while embarking on their own new adventures.

17. Teach my kids how to cook. I'm already doing this with E. She's my little sous chef. She can identify at least 10 different ingredients and probably knows how to make pizza dough on her own by now. I want to teach all of my children at least the basics of cooking, from the earliest age when they are able to help, and also how to experiment in the kitchen. (E sometimes recommends things to add to recipes that actually end up working, and I think that's awesome.)

18. Have a perfectly curated closet. There's probably no such thing, but considering how far I've come in the last year, I bet in another four I can have something at least pretty darn close. I always want to be a well-dressed mom.

19. Grow the blog. I want to still be blogging when I'm 30, as much a benefit as it has been to me after only a couple months. I also would like to see it grow to be more than it is now.

20. Find a new hobby my husband and I can share. J and I currently share one hobby (possibly more on that later) that isn't watching TV together after E goes to bed, but I would like to cultivate more. If not a hobby, at least some sort of ritual or routine that we do together. I don't ever want there to be absolutely no aspect of our lives that we share. He's my best friend, and I never want to lose that.

21. Go on a family road trip. The "road trip" out here doesn't count. The "road trip" back won't, either. I mean a true road trip with my family where we can stop at whatever touristy site we want to, and it doesn't matter how long it takes to get to our destination because there is no true destination.

22. Go to Boston in the fall. Maybe this one is a bit cliche, but I've only been to any part of New England once in my life, and I've heard Boston in the fall was beautiful, and it was in that Veggie Tales song, so it belongs on this list.

23. Read a biography. I know earlier I said read every book on my reading list, but currently there are no biographies on my reading list. It's a genre I've never really gotten into much, and I'd like to read more. Recommendations welcome.

24. Learn how to sew (again). I learned the basics of sewing from home ec and from my great grandmother, but it's been at least a decade since the last time I sewed anything. I would like to learn so that I can make basic household things such as curtains, and how to alter my own clothes and those of my children. Maybe even make clothes for myself and my children, but we'll see.

25. Go camping as a family. I'd love to go camping with J and E, once she's a little older and before we have any more kids (because camping with babies is a no-go for me).

26. Teach E how to fish. I'd like to do this with all my kids, obviously, but by the time I'm 30, E will be the only one old enough. I myself caught a catfish when I was 2 or 3 (I can't remember exactly), and I learned how to fillet by the time I was 9, so I'd like to teach my daughter the same thing.

27. Have a star named after me (and E, and all of my kids). I know this is a thing that you can pay for, but I love stars. Astronomy was one of my favorite subjects in college. To this day, I find comfort in gazing up at the stars (I write as the Perseids meteor shower is at its peak). It would be cool to have one named after me, and all of my kids. Like in The Lion King, once I'm gone, all of my kids will know that I'm still up there looking down on them.

28. Sing karaoke. This is something I've always wanted to do, secretly. I need to just freaking do it (not so secretly)

29. Plant a tree on our property. This is something I've always wanted to do (I've planted trees for volunteer work before, but never my own tree). I would prefer to do it on the property of the house we buy, again because then it will be something for our children to remember us by.

30. This final one is not something I'm willing to write online, but I know what it is. (You hear that, future me? You know what I'm talking about.)

This list was really hard to write, but now that I have, I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to accomplish this list in four years. Even if I don't, I'm sure I'll have plenty of adventures to look back on. 

Weekend Recap

It's been awhile since we've had a weekend recap around here, so I figured it was time for another, since this past weekend was particularly fun.

Friday:

pizza night

We made chocolate chip cookies, and then when I turned my back, E snatched one. She might've gotten away with it, too, if she hadn't come up to me all proud saying "Look what I sneaked!" 

Also on Friday, I signed up for my second-ever run (a five-mile "mini-thon") in a couple months. I'm excited to have the extra motivation to get out and run again, because I've been pretty bad lately.

Saturday:

I successfully J. Crew rolled my sleeve! This is my going out outfit, apparently.

A friend had a chili party at his place Saturday night, so naturally I made cupcakes to bring, and the strawberry whipped cream to use as a frosting. And it was the most delicious thing ever. 

After the chili party, I went downtown with one of our friends to celebrate her 30th birthday. We had a few drinks, complained about how loud the music was, then went back to her place to drink wine in peace and laugh about how old we're getting.

This weekend was the first time I've been out in a very long time, and while it was nice to cut loose for a little bit, I definitely don't miss doing it all the time like I used to.

Sunday was spent recovering from Saturday (yet another sign of how old I'm getting) and realizing that I'm either coming down with something, or my allergies are setting in. All of yesterday and so far today, my throat has been sore and my nose stuffed up. I'm hoping it's just allergies and I can get it under control soon! I have no idea how my allergies act out here, so I guess we'll see.

Hoping you lovelies had a great weekend!

PS I almost forgot, I'm guest posting for my bloggy buddy Laura at I do deClaire while she is on vacation with her family, so head over there to see my "two ways to step up your mommy-on-the-go outfits" post!

Disneyland Recap

As you know, my family (husband, daugther, mom and I) went to Disneyland this past weekend, from Friday to Tuesday. Today I want to share with you some photos from our experience. I tried to keep it to a minimum, but this is still a verrry picture heavy post, so feel free to continue reading after the cut if you wish.

First day at Disneyland! Obligatory picture in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

Weekend Recap: 4-Day Edition

This is going to be one epic weekend recap post, since we had a four-day weekend due to the holiday. Prepare for picture overload!

Wednesday night we had a friend stay for dinner, so we ordered pizza (for the first time in months) and played Settlers of Catan. That game is addicting, especially when you keep almost winning only to get beaten at the last minute.

last minute party decorations consisted of red, white and blue construction paper cut into "ribbons" hung around the house (E's idea)

the only outfit pic I got that day

E stole my phone and took this picture of Bandit (among a hundred others)

men doing manly things (my husband, the sous chef)

Thursday, we agreed at the last minute to host a 4th of July party that our friend was originally going to host until his dogs destroyed his house. It ended up working out better that way because our house is a lot more kid-friendly and there were several kids that came over (and kept E entertained, yay!). It was a lot of fun and a pretty chill day, with friends and food and booze (no fireworks, though, but I wasn't exactly bummed about that).

this guy and the jellyfish are my favorites

sooo pretty

watching the sardines swim around overhead

Oreo cupcake- oreo on top, cookies n cream frosting, chocolate cake with another Oreo baked into it. Amazing.

E with her tiny vanilla cupcake

Abbey Road!

not sure what I'm going to do with these...

Friday we went to the aquarium, the used book store (and the record store next door), and a cupcake store. (If you're ever in Monterey, be sure to check out Mrs. Delish's Cupcakes, OMG.) We picked up several new records for our collection, and the proprietor just gave us this box FULL of old  basketball cards. Maybe some of them are worth some money? I doubt it, but that would be cool.

Saturday I got out of the house for some "me time" (which my husband and I both know is just code for "shopping"). I went to Old Navy (which was having a 30% off everything sale), Target, and Famous Footwear and only walked away with this guy. I'm happy that I didn't bring home a bunch of things I didn't need, but bummed that I wasn't able to find more of what I was looking for (shorts, tank tops, and sandals). The search shall continue, I suppose. Though I am excited to wear my new tank top. I loved it so much I paid full price for it (2/5 of this month's budget! I'll save you from having to do math-- it was $20).

And Sunday was "productivity" day where we cleaned the house, I made two and a half recipes for the blog (one of which goes up tomorrow!) and did laundry, and we went to the playground. For dinner, we had the leftover campfire packets as the filling for burritos, added black beans and salsa-- soo good!

Phew! If you read this whole thing, I'm impressed. It was a really great weekend, though. I hope yours was, as well, four-day or otherwise! Oh, and hello to everyone popping over here from Oh, She Dabbles today! :)

Weekend Recap + June Budget

I have lots of words and not too many pictures for you today, so just bear with me, k?

Friday: We decided that we've been really good about money lately, so we headed to the Post Exchange to treat ourselves and spend $20 each. E got a new doll, J picked up Arkham City (which so far seems to be a great game), and I picked up two pairs of pants, neither of which were jeans! With my $20 I managed to fill two of the holes in my closet and double the amount of pants I have that are not just regular ole jeans. Woo! Both of them will be on the blog this week, so look out for that.

We also ate pizza (just pepperoni and roasted tomatoes this week). 

Saturday: We ran some errands and got the house ready for some guests on Sunday! I didn't take pictures of anything on Saturday, but really there wasn't much to take pictures of, and we were pretty busy running around.

Sunday morning, E's grandma, aunt and great-aunt (her dad's family) drove down from San Jose to visit with us. E wanted to take them to the playground, so we walked up there and she dragged her aunt all over that playground (poor thing, but at least it wasn't me this time)! Then we had lunch and they drove back north. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and making/eating dinner (recipe tomorrow!).

Since I did so well shopping on Friday, I decided to take stock of what I spent this month, and was surprised by the results:

Maxi skirt (thrifted): $4.95

Cardigan (thrifted) (not on the blog yet): $4.95

Shoes (thrifted) (not on the blog yet): $3.95

Necklace (Target, on clearance): $7.98

Blue pants (on clearance + extra $25 off) (coming this week): $14.25

Cargo pants (on clearance + extra $25 off) (coming this week): $6

=$42.08

Not bad for a girl who doesn't have a formal budget! (I'm not counting the hiking shorts, because we bought those specifically for hiking and I'm just glad I can wear them for everyday wear as well.) I think going forward my goal will be to stay under $50 per month, and to purge my closet again for things to sell.

What about you guys? Did you have a good weekend? How did you do with your budgets?

Oh, and if you aren't already, don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin'! (I'm not having any sort of emotional reaction to Google Reader going away because I've used Bloglovin' from the beginning, and I love it, but I sympathize with those of you who are!)

Weekend Recap

Because J had to work the night shift Saturday night, our whole schedule was a bit thrown off this weekend. We didn't really do much other than go to the playground on Saturday, so I'm just going to share with you a few photos I snapped over the weekend. (By the way, I totally forgot to snap a photo of our pizza on Friday, but a) it was just regular ol' pepperoni and b) I was so hungry by the time it was done that I just shoved it into my face without a second thought. Hopefully I'll have another pizza for you next week!)

Friday:

 

was a gorgeous day.

 

Especially for a run.

 

Even though it was a couple nights early, I tried to get a picture of the "super moon" Friday night. Which turned out to be good, because I couldn't even see the moon Saturday or Sunday nights due to it being so darn cloudy here. 

Saturday:

 We played tag...

And red light green light. :)

Sunday was a miserable day. The weather was miserable, we were miserable because of the weather and because of our messed-up sleep schedules... Just miserable. So I didn't take a picture of one single thing.

Something occurred to me Saturday night, though. California is nice, it's great... but it kind of feels like a vacation that won't end. And I just want to go home. It feels like our life is completely on hold while we're out here. We want to have more babies, buy a house, get a second dog, but all of those things have to wait until we get back to Nebraska (or we would at least prefer them to, anyway). 

And then, being home with E all day, every day, for the next few months until her dad returns from deployment, with no family out here to lend a hand, and no close friends that we can ask to watch her... I'm about to lose it. I feel so guilty saying that, because I know there are many mothers that would give anything to be able to spend as much time with their kids as I do with mine (and I am really grateful for it), but I can't just smile and pretend like everything is fine when it's not.

So instead of continuing to complain about it and feel sorry for myself, I'm going to try to come up with solutions to these issues. There are some things I just can't do anything about, but that doesn't mean I can't do anything about any of it. So today, I am taking E to the child development center to inquire about enrolling her in the part-day preschool program they offer a couple days a week. She wouldn't be going to daycare full-time (which would be ridiculous, there's no need for her to go full-time), but she would be exposed to the same kids over and over on a bi-weekly basis and hopefully be able to make friends. Plus I would be able to get a few hours to myself to clean or run errands or work out or *gasp* go shopping without constantly refilling juice cups or answering a million questions. If the price is reasonable, I have a feeling this one change could make all the difference and will make the next few months much more bearable. 

Sorry to unload on you all like that, but this is a safe space and I know how hard it is to admit when something is wrong, especially as mothers.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend, and have many wonderful things to look forward to this week!

A Day In The Life: Photo-An-Hour Challenge

I thought it would be fun to show you what my daily life looks like, so I took a photo-an-hour challenge. I tried not to focus too much on the quality of the photos and just take one every hour, on the hour, so... the quality isn't great. But it was a lot of fun! Enjoy!

7 am: I wake up to this face. 

8 am: Breakfast. Coffee non-optional.

9 am: Reading my blog roll aka my morning newspaper.

And since there are so many photos... you can continue reading after the cut... :)

Weekend Recap

This weekend was such a good weekend, I'm so sad it's over. Pizza (of course), hiking, a six-month-iversary (yes, we're dorks and celebrate month-iversaries), wine, the farmer's market... best weekend ever.

Friday: I threw together a last minute oh-crap-what-do-I-have-for-toppings pizza, a barbeque bacon pizza, with the obligatory spinach of course. We also went shopping for "adventure" gear for our hike the next day. That's how we got E excited for it, was to tell her we were going on an adventure. :)

Saturday: We got up early and caravan-ed with a few friends down to Big Sur, hiked about 3.5 miles up a mountain (I'm from Kansas, it was a mountain), then turned around and hiked the 3.5 miles back down. Four men, one woman, two dogs, and a three-year-old, and she was the only one of us not completely exhausted by the time we got back to the cars. And we barely had to carry her, she did about 90% of it all on her own! What a champ. After E was in bed, J and I watched The Hobbit (the first movie we saw together as a married couple), drank some wine, and toasted to being married for six whole months. I'm so lucky to be married to my best friend.

I went a little picture crazy, so if you care to see them, there are more after the cut...

Weekend Recap

Friday: I made another new (to us) pizza for dinner (recipe tomorrow!). Super exciting. 

Saturday: We made the drive up to Sacramento so that E could see her dad for a few hours since he is deploying really soon. It’s a loooong drive, but it was worth it. We also visited a (military) friend of ours who was buried so recently they haven’t put his grave marker up yet. He was buried in the military section of the cemetery, near their Court of Honor. There’s something so sobering about being near a memorial like that, and we both got a little emotional. (I didn’t get any pictures from Saturday, but don't worry, I made up for it on Sunday.)

Sunday: was actually a really good day. I woke up way early, and carpooled up to the trail where the 10k was held with the two other girls I was running with. I was really nervous at the starting line, but I found a groove and actually finished at a faster pace than what I've been training at! It was exhilarating to  to cross that finish line. The only bummer was, J and E got lost on the way upt to meet me at the finish line and didn't get to see me cross. But we spent the rest of the day at the venue, which had a carousel, train rides, petting zoo, and all the fresh produce and locally made jams/salsa/wine you could want (the bountifulness of such things is probably my favorite part of being in California). It was a really cool place and we'll probably take her back out there sometime soon. Good wholesome family fun. :) And this may have been my first race, but I don't think it will be my last.

at the finish line!

showing off my medal

what are you doing up there, peacock?

I'm the dork who took a picture of a watermill

enjoying the carousel :)

my dusty shoes and "bib" number (we didn't get real ones, which was also kind of a bummer).

What about you? Did you try anything new this weekend?