My Bridesmaid Proposals

I promised awhile back to share with you guys how I "proposed" to my bridesmaids. I didn't want to do anything to over the top but I thought doing something small and cute would make it fun! My sisters were all over our house last last weekend, so I decided to ask them then (my little brother Mitch was bummed he didn't get a present lol!).

The cards and bracelets are so cute and I love the concept! I picked dark purple bracelets (plum/eggplant) because that's the color dresses they are going to be wearing, remember? The girls loved them and immediately tied them on. I still have one to give to my other bridesmaid, my friend Amanda, but she doesn't read my blog so the surprise won't be ruined for her! I ordered these from this shop on Etsy, and the owner was really sweet and edited the wording for me.

Brian's Surprise!

A few weeks ago I got the idea to surprise Brian with some sort of backyard game, since we don't have any right now and we have cookouts a decent amount. He is already building horseshoe pits with backstops in the backyard, so I thought hmm maybe ladder ball. But the ones my family has bought fall apart a lot and my dad ended up rebuilding them out of PVC pipe, so paying $50 for that was out. Then I decided to make him NY Giants themed cornhole! He loves cornhole and he loves the Giants. I recruited my dad to build the boards, my brother to sand them, my mom to get me a discount on paint at Sherwin Williams, Amazon for the bean bags, and my sister to paint them (she is super meticulous and loves these kinds of projects- she did amazing!). I would have liked to do more myself but I've been feeling crappy and everyone was eager to help because everyone loves Bri. Everyone did such an awesome job and they turned out better than I ever could have imagined! Anyways, my family came over last weekend for a cookout (we actually invited our realtor too to see our new house, she is so sweet), and we put it in the backyard and surprised him. He loves it! My dad even made the legs removable for easy storage, and he made the legs out of used hockey sticks, which is really cool! Sorry, I used my iPhone for these pics, I didn't want to miss his reaction!

Picture Practice!

So I decided to schedule a few posts for this week so you guys wouldn't miss me too bad. I practiced with my camera a little bit yesterday and last week, so I thought I'd show you guys some of my pictures. They obviously are not good but I am just glad I am actually trying and not giving up like I did with knitting haha. I got this book and it's really been helpful! Any and all tips are welcome :-)

Also, I am linking up with Kelli today for Picture Practice! Pink is my favorite color and these awesome flowers have been blooming in our backyard the past few days.

Fragile and Fleeting

So I had a different post planned for today, about how I can't wait for my surgery to be over, how I probably won't blog next week because of it, and I was going to share some pictures I took practicing with my new camera. But then last night I got a phone call from my dad; my second cousin, a police officer in New Jersey, was killed in the line of duty yesterday. He was operating radar when a tractor-trailer veered off the road and rear-ended his police car.

I saw this story earlier in the day yesterday, a few Facebook friends had shared it. I didn't realize who it was when I read the story, but I did what I always do when I hear of or read an article about a person who has passed away, whether I know them or not; I said a prayer, asking God to take him to Heaven and to help his family get through this hard time. I cried when my dad told me what happened, because although I only maybe met him once as a child, a Marine Corp veteran, a 5 year police veteran, someone's son, is gone, just like that. I can't even imagine the pain those close to him are feeling. The Malaysia Airlines disaster is also so heart-wrenching, and I hope all of those people are at peace as well. It's just not fair.

Life is fragile and fleeting, and I know I take mine for granted. I cry about things that don't really matter, and wish my weekdays away. There are changes I need to make in my life, and it's time I start. Rest in Peace, Chris, and all those who died yesterday in the awful plane crash.  "Until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand."

The Most Embarrassing Injury

Okay guys, I have a confession to make. I have a bruise on the back of my leg/butt, like kind of where my leg goes in my pelvis, but on the back (that's the only way I can think to describe it). It hurts bad, and when I sit I subconsciously balance on the other cheek because it's kinda painful.

How did I get this injury, you ask? Brian was in the bedroom, and I went into our bathroom to pee and left the door cracked open so I could still continue telling Brian whatever story was so important at the time. I pull my PJ pants down and go to sit down on the toilet, all while still blabbing away. Well I was too distracted to look before I sat down, so instead of plopping down centered on the toilet like a normal human being, I missed and sat down more towards the right, so the rim of the toilet went right in between my legs (I hope this makes sense). And when I say sat down, I more like just let my body fall down full speed onto the seat, because I apparently am so super confident in my toilet-sitting skills. Well, it hurt! I cried like a baby for 5 30 minutes and slept with an ice pack under my butt.

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Told you I'm a spaz. The worst part is that this isn't even the first time this has happened. Last time I was waddling around for a week afterwards. Linking up with Kathy!

I Googled What!?!

So excited for this link up! Kelli, Jess, and I want to see everything you Googled, whether in the past week, past year, of all time, or even funny stuff people Googled to get to your blog! You can check your history easily on the app on your phone, or you can go to www.google.com/history. Okay, now you get the privilege of seeing 10 things I've Googled this past month (I can't include everything because I've Googled a LOT of things.. I have a problem).

1- "Is embracement a word?" Yes, it is actually, but Blogger doesn't like it and is giving me red squigglies. 

2- "Does orca whale need to be capitalized?" What? I wanted to know! And the consensus I reached is no, I don't think so. And again, Blogger thinks orca is not a word.. get it together, Blogger!

3- "Can I save mint from my mint plant?" We have a huge mint bush in our backyard and I'm going to want to save some of it for fall/winter.

4- "Is it years passed or years past?" Well it depends, apparently. 

5- "Kumbaya" Honestly, I don't know why I Googled that.

6- "Hakuna Matata" Again, I really don't know... but now that song is stuck in my head!

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7- "How often is the Supreme Court unanimous?" More often than you'd think; it's more than half of the time, according to Forbes. Last year it was over 60%, according to the NY Times.

8- "When is Nashville coming back?" I love this show, and it's returning for season 3 in the fall!

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9- "Etsy 12 month stickers" We want to do onesies with those 1 month, 2 month, 3 month, etc. stickers on them for my sister's new baby. 

10- "What is Tilly short for?" Call me crazy but I think that name is adorable, and it's short for Matilda, which I don't really like... but I love the book and the movie!

My favorite line! (via)

Here are the top 5 keywords that people used to find my blog in the past month (the internet is a scary place):

1- "pink pig" (This has got to be because of this post)

2- "can't you see what the camel is yelling?" (I guess this one is because I reference the hump day camel a lot?)

3- "creepy houses" (Maybe because of my How to Survive a Haunted House post)

4- "dachshunds" (Well, duh)

5- "first person to ever have a song with rockin and rollin" (Well yea, I have a post called Rockin and Rollin and Whatnot-- We were Sandy and Danny for Halloween a few years back)


Alright guys, your turn, so grab a button and link up!!

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Babies and Ping Pong

If you follow me on Instagram you know that I'm going to be an aunt to a little boy due November 26th! My sister Kaylee is pregnant and we did a little gender reveal with our family on Friday night. We all wore pink or blue depending on our guess. My 10 year old brother Mitchell is beyond excited that he gets to be an uncle, especially because the baby is a boy! I used my new DSLR camera, and I'm practicing as much as possible, so don't judge me, I tried! That's our Dad cutting the cake, and that's Kaylee in blue.

We also had a ping pong tournament that night. Our family gets really into it, brackets and everything. I just have to share these pictures of Brian with you, he takes it very seriously and these pictures crack me up!! Guys I have like 20 hilarious pictures, and it was really hard to narrow it down to these 5!

Alright, let's power through this Monday! Don't forget to get your I Googled What?! posts ready for the link up tomorrow!! 

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Five

1. I am super pumped that I just got our Verizon bill reduced last night! We were under a pretty old crappy contract with 700 minutes and only 2GB each (we kept going over our limits), but I called and talked to a really friendly Southerner who hooked us up with a new, better plan where we share 6GB and have unlimited talk and text, for the same price! But he also pulled some strings and got us $10 off a month for a year. We are paying less than we were and we get lots more benefit woop! Oh and he backdated it so we didn't go over our data this month. I just love a good deal.

2. I just want to mention how bad paying student loans hurts. I just dropped an unreal amount of money last night paying them, wahhhh. Law school was expensive dude.

3. Remember how I got a bonus at work? Woop! But I am sad because they just added it to my paycheck which wasn't the best way to do it, so for this pay period it bumped my pay bracket into a 35% tax bracket! I almost shit a brick when I saw how much money they took out of my check this month. Fortunately I will get the money back come tax time, but that's a longgggg way away. Grr.

4. I have been sick as a dog this week. First off, I don't actually understand that saying normally, but my dogs were actually sick this week too, poor things, so it actually applies. My surgery is a week from Monday and as weird as it sounds, I can't wait. People have asked me what it is, and I just decided I will share, it's my blog anyways. I have a big cyst in my ovary that needs to be removed because it's causing me a lot of trouble. I had this same surgery 3 years ago, so needless to say I'm annoyed that they are back. Nausea,vomiting, headaches, and stomach/lower back pain have all been on my plate this week, and I am so freaking tired of being sick and tired. I left work early Tuesday because I felt awful, stayed home Wednesday because I was dying, and Thursday I had to leave work early because I kept throwing up and dry heaving. The 21st can't come fast enough!

5. On a more positive note, my DSLR camera came! It's big and intimidating (that's what she said) and I kinda stink so far, but apparently that's natural. Thank goodness for Pinterest and Kelli, who have given me lots of sites and advice, so hopefully this weekend, stomach and weather cooperating, I will be able to get outside and try to take some pictures of our pretty flowers in our yard.

I took this pic on my iPhone (obviously)

Okay have a great weekend guys!

The 4th + Link Up Announcement!!

Soooo the 4th was like 5 days ago and today is Wednesday and I am still EXHAUSTED and oh so late writing this, so I'll keep it short and sweet. We headed up to the lake for a long weekend. We left Wednesday night and got there around 1am, then got back Sunday night around 8pm. It was a little chilly, so we didn't do a ton of swimming (I pretty much wore a sweatshirt all weekend!) but it was a great time, with food, fireworks, and family! That's about all the recap I'm going to do, because like I said, I'm so tired (my surgery is in less than 2 weeks now so let's hope that when that's all over and done I will have more energy and can blog more!)

Before you go though, Kelli, Jess, and I are excited to announce our "I Googled What?!" Link Up! I know I Google lots of weird and funny things during the week, and so on Tuesday, July 15th, we want to see everything weird you Googled! If you want an example, see this post of mine from a few months back. It was really funny to look back and see what I had Googled in the previous week. So grab a button and get your posts ready to link up next Tuesday!!

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