Random Wednesday

I'm working the late shift this week and for some reason I cannot make myself wake up before 10:30 and I really can't make myself be productive before I have to get ready for work. So here I am.. on the couch.. watching Gilmore Girls...reading blogs. Whoops.

Anyways, I had a post idea today and it just wasn't happening so you're getting some random life snippets.

My birthday is Sunday! And I don't even feel like it's my birthday week.. I'm usually a birthday brat and spend the whole week planning and celebrating. This year, though, I'm a grown up and I have no time to do these things and all my friends are grown ups who have no time for these things.

So far, being a grown up is not all it's cracked up to be. 

We're going to the beach Saturday! I've got a 3 day weekend and my uncle is getting married Sunday ( yes.. on my birthday.... I'm not bitter...) so Mom will be here Friday night and we'll be driving down to Wilmington early Saturday morning!! I am so ridiculously excited for this - I'm in desperate need of a vacation.

I'm a terrible bride. Seriously. I need to send out my Save the Dates.. last week. And they're still sitting in their packaging on our desk... And my mom calls to ask me if I've found shoes, decided on a cake, picked out what the boys will wear, decided on a weekend for the bridal shower, etc. None of these have happened and there are so many other things to do, too... Oh well. 172 days left!

I just found one of Zuko's whiskers in my blanket. I don't really know where I was going with that.. but it's weird. This wouldn't be the first time I've found a whiskers of is. I guess this is normal? Cats shedding whiskers like snakes shed their skin?

I think I might become one of those "blog 3 times a week" type of blogger. I'm finding it pretty hard to blog more than that. I'm actually finding 3 times a little hard, but I love it and I want to keep it up and I also want to keep reading all of your blogs! 

Look at this sweet text I got last night. I have terrible, terrible night vision (and honestly day vision, too) but it's even worse when it rains and we were expecting terrible weather last night but now it's not supposed to hit until tonight I think. But, he goes to bed around 9:30p and wakes up at 6a, whereas I don't get off til 11p or later usually and can sleep in. He's precious. 

Weekend What?

With this new position, I don't have a weekend. Granted, I've always worked Sundays but I always had Friday and Saturdays off. Nowadays, I'm pretty much always off on Saturday but my other day off is up in the air and changes each week so I've always got to make the best of Saturdays.

This one especially because I won't be seeing Christian again until late Friday night or possible Saturday morning since I'll be working 2-11p Monday through Friday since we'll be leaving for the beach Saturday morning!!!

Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to Southpark for the Walk to Defeat ALS with one of my best friends. Her dad was diagnosed her senior year of college (3 years ago) and ever since I've seen more strength from one family than I ever thought possible. And every year we all walk with them to raise money for ALS research and to support families dealing with this terrible disease.

I stole this awesome group picture of all of us from all 3 walks from her Instagram. It's so wonderful to see so many people stand up with her family and fight with them! And as you can see the group has only grown!!

After the walk, the mister had to be fed because he was hungry and cranky so we headed to Chili's for lunch before a quick cat nap. We had grand plans of cleaning the apartment which quickly disappeared after the nap when I headed to the pool. I was there for literally an hour and I have tan red lines. #palegirlproblems

For Easter, his parents gave us a gift card for a free movie and we decided to cash it in on Divergent! We're day-movie people but since it was so gorgeous outside, we decided to wait until the night showing... terrible idea. 

Since Divergent had been out for awhile, I assumed we were safe - FALSE! Children everywhere. The movie started at 7:10 and we got there about 6:50ish and the theater was pretty empty so I felt good about our decision. Slowly but surely the theater completely filled up with children. Two parents even came and asked us to scoot down so they could put their 3 kids next to us and then they LEFT THE THEATER.

Needless to say, I spent the entire previews thinking we should leave to go see a more "adult movie" so I wouldn't have to listen to all of the kids talking through it but by the time the movie actually started, they all shut up! It was wonderful and I was actually able to enjoy the movie.

I've yet to read the book that I downloaded on my tablet months ago, but now I'm really wanting to read it. Also - WHY was that movie so depressing?? I won't ruin anything - but I wasn't expecting the first movie to be that sad. 

Luckily, Four is ridiculously hot and I could keep myself distracted that way. 

Time Hop

Has anyone downloaded that Time Hop app? I had seen people talking about this app on Twitter and I was curious. It is the best and the worst thing that I've ever downloaded.

Basically, you link all of your social media profiles to it and every day it tells you what you posted in the last few years. I've only had social media for about 6 or 7 years so most days I just see the last 5 years because Facebook was different back then and I didn't post too much.

But, oh boy. When I did post on Facebook in the early high school days it is so embarrassing... Seriously so bad. So over dramatic and embarrassing. But then I remind myself that I was 16 years old and all 16 year olds are dramatic. And I also remember that there are plenty of people my age or older doing the exact same thing today.. and I feel better about myself.

Here's some things that make this app so wonderful, though.

This was the weekend I met Christian so I got to home and reminisce with the Mister about the weekend we met. 

And this was about 4 days later when I applied to App and knew it was where I was meant to be.

And this was me waiting on pins and needles wanting my acceptance to come back. 

And this was a night out in Boone.. taken in a bar... and uploaded to Facebook immediately. Oh college. 

\

The ability to reminisce about Bachelorette weekend shenanigans with friends. 

Now that I think about it.. all of this just makes me really nostalgic and want to go back to college. Luckily I also have things like this to remind me why I don't want to... 

I don't really know the point of this post except to say if you want to be equally embarrassed and jealous of yourself you should download it. Any time it only goes back a year or two, I'm jealous of college Leslie. Anything farther than that I'm usually embarrassed of high school or college Freshman self. Trust me, she was equally as bad as high school Leslie. 

Little Bloggy Break

I'm sure you noticed... I took a little blogging break over the last week and a half. And I don't feel bad about it. More than anything I just missed reading all of your blogs. Even during my busiest days in my previous positions, I could usually fit in reading some blogs throughout my day (or at least on my lunch break!). But, now, I don't stop. I barely sit down. And I definitely don't have a lunch break - don't get me wrong, I eat while I work but it's a much harder process now!

I've enjoyed the past year and 4 months that I've been blogging and I really want to keep it up - I've just got to find the balance so keep bearing with me while I figure it out!

Today, I'm sharing some snippets of my life in the last couple weeks from the iPhone!

First up, Zuko love!

Christian and I attended a Casino Night for my work last Thursday and it was an absolute blast! Basically, we had to meet certain goals in March to qualify to attend and the better our numbers were, the more "money" we had to play with! I was 4th, so I had $46,000 to play with and it was a blast! We ended with $250,000 and got to use that money for an auction at the end of the night and we ended up with a new Keurig! There were also free drinks and free food and a lot of dancing with all the managers - such a blast!

There's also been a lot of coffee in my life the last few weeks. Which I'm sure is only going to get worse with the new Kuerig we have. One of the agents even brought me Starbucks when she was out on her dinner break and wouldn't let me pay her back. I work with some of the nicest people!

It's finally been warming up in Charlotte and I've been able to play with my closet some more. It's also helped that with this new position I have to dress up a little more. There's another promotion to full manager in my future and I will do anything to get that - first up, dressing for the job I want and not the job I have. And it seems to be working because I've been getting a ton of compliments! :) 

Of course, I still wear my distressed denim on the weekends ;)

This white blazer is my favorite article of clothing I own right now. 

I also don't follow the "white before Easter" rule. Nope. I love my white pants. 

When did this happen?!

When did I become a grown up? Seriously. Christian and I were riding in the car  to his parent's house over the weekend and I asked him if he thought it was weird that he didn't live there anymore and he actually said no. Then, we were talking about when we really "grew up" and "became adults" and I realized that I don't even know if there's a certain thing that makes you "grown". Like at what point did I grow up...

When I got my first job and started buying everything I wanted?

When I turned 18 and graduated from high school?

When I moved 5 hours from home with no financial support to go to college?

When I adopted my first pet on my own?

Zuko's first day at home :) 

When I got my first out of college job and my first apartment on my own?

When I moved to a city I'd never lived in to start life after college?

When I paid my first student loan payment?

When I got my own car insurance policy without my parents?

When I moved in with a boy?

When I bought my first set of couches for a new apartment with that boy?

When I got engaged to that handsome man?

When I bought a wedding dress?

When I had friends over for a "dinner party" at my very first dining room table?

When I got my first promotion?

What milestone constitutes being an adult? I'm convinced none of them. I don't think there's a day where you just wake up and you're grown.

I feel like I've been adult since I got my first job. I slowly started supporting myself and by the time I moved to Boone, I was 100% on my own when it came to finding a place to live, keeping all my grades up so I could graduate on time, and having a job to support myself (and little Zukes). After graduation, I had no desire to go back to Athens, GA and it was never on my radar. I didn't look for a single job or apartment there. I knew I would be staying in NC and I knew I would be in Charlotte. I've been so set on starting new and being fully independent since the day I turned 18.

But as I'm planning a wedding and a future with the man of my dreams, I realize I still feel like I'm 16 some days. I still have to call my parents and ask for advice. I still call them anytime something exciting happens. I still miss them and want to go visit them every weekend if I could. I realize that some things may always stress me out - insurance, taxes and buying a house being the big ones on my brain right now!

So I guess my question to all of you is - do you feel like an old grown up and a 16 year old kid at the exact same time?! Or am I all alone in this?? Because some days I miss being a kid and blowing all my money on pretty clothes and hanging out all night every night with my best friends and other days I'm ready to be in our own house and raising our own kids and being settled in our careers.

Workin' for the Weekend!

It's Tuesday and I'm recapping my weekend. We should all be used to this at this point...

I tried to write this post yesterday but ended up having to work from home in the morning so I never got around to this little space. So you're getting a weekend recap because I really loved my weekend!

And just to let you all know, I spend a lot of my mornings just like this so I can get these posts typed up and try to have a little bit of me time before I head into work for 9 hours of non stop running around!

On Friday I slept in a little while Christian had a couple conference calls in the morning. Unfortunately he then got called into the hospital down the road so I used that time to get dressed and look pretty.  Once he got back we ran to his parent's house because I had my belt and veil delivered there (our mail person is the worst). It actually started making the wedding feel real!

Zuko also posted up on my work bag and informed me I wasn't allowed to go to work on Friday.

We then went to dinner and grabbed a couple Redbox movies and ice cream to spend the night cuddled up on the couch!

Saturday Christian wanted to sleep in and somehow I ended up sleeping later than he did... Once I got my lazy butt out of the bed, I made Christian take me to lunch and we ended up at Cracker Barrel and I had some delicious dumplings (they happen to be my favorite food) before headed to his parents house to steal the pup.

We arrived at Christian's house to find his sister, Anna also stopping by to pick up the pup. So we all took Emmy to the dog park together! The poor girl is so scared of other dogs that she runs away as soon as they try to greet her and hides behind our legs! It's actually kind of adorable and quite pitiful!

After our dog park adventure, we headed to the grocery store because we haven't been in weeks. It was awful and we were basically starving ourselves. I made sure to get things that Christian could feed himself with since I work 3 to midnight all this week and won't be home for dinner.

We took a mid day errand break to watch the movie I had picked from Redbox - Catching Fire! I really love those movies/books and I'm glad he does, too, so I'm allowed to watched them as much as I want! He's even looking forward to the next movie coming out and keeps asking me what happens next!

After the movie, we had to return the DVDs and we decided to go by Jared's and look at wedding bands. And actually ended up ordering them!! Mine had to be special ordered because my hands are so teeny tiny, but Christian actually fit in the store display so he got to take his home! Of course, I made hime wear it for a few minutes because I love the way he looked with it on and made me even more excited for October!

After Jared's I wanted to go to H&M but I didn't want to drag Christian along because he hates shopping with me. But, he was such a trooper and followed me around the store and even helped me pick out some really cute things, surprisingly!

Sunday, I had to work, but it was my first official day on my own in my new position and it went perfectly! Everyone did an awesome job and I got to send some really great emails to my bosses bragging on everyone and they all said the Sunday crew did a great job so it was a wonderful feeling!

The only downside to Sunday was walking into work and realizing a diamond from my ring was missing!! Luckily, it's under warranty and they'll replace it but I'm sad knowing they'll have to keep it for a few days and not have my ring :(

I sent this picture to Christian with a million sad emojis...

The Bump It List

So today, I hopped on Bloglovin' to read some posts and had decided I wouldn't post today because I was lacking some motivation due to the overwhelming exhaustion I'm already feeling from my new (awesome) position. Until I stumbled upon Kalyn's post.

The Bump It List.

We all have a "bucket list" of things we want to accomplish in life but we all know there are some things we would just never ever do.

one // Bungee jumping. For some reason, I have a giant fear that the bungee would snap right after I throw myself off a bridge and I hit the bottom and die. Nope, no thanks.

Source

Although this looks beautiful... I just don't think I could do it. Yet, I want to sky dive.. for some reason parachutes don't scare me as much.

two // Move any farther south than where I am now. I'm from GA and I slowly made my way farther north to NC. Once we are here long enough, we plan to move even farther up north. Or even farther west. Anything but farther south. I will never live in South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia (again) or Florida. The only other place I'd live would be Tennessee, but I highly doubt I could ever get Christian to do that.

I prefer four real seasons - beautiful fall leaves for more than a week, majestic snow falls (although I really do dislike scraping ice off the windshield), green springs with light breezes and summers by the pool. In the south it's literally always summer in my opinion...

three // Give up meat. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. I'm not sure this needs any explanation. I really love burgers, bacon, pepperoni pizza and chicken and dumplings. How could I give those up??

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four // Become a runner. As a competitive cheerleader we ran a lot. A LOT. And in the middle of the day in the middle of the summer in the middle of Georgia. Around a a track. Or up and down bleachers. Or around buildings. Or across parking lots. Pure torture if you ask me.

Yes, I loved being in shape and I totally see how all the running made us as awesome as we were because we didn't get tired during competitions. Yes, I get it. But, no, I don't ever want to do it again. There are too many other ways to get in shape when I decide I actually want to exercise..

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There are a few other things that popped into my head to list, but then as I thought about it I realized I might actually end up doing those things so I really shouldn't rule them out because you never know where life will take us, so these are my four and everything else we'll just play it by ear!

April First?!

I know we're all thinking and saying the same thing today: HOW is it already April 1st?! I feel like it was just Christmas! But anything that gets me closer to our wedding day/honeymoon is good in my book!

Since we're a third of the way through the year, I wanted to check in on my goals I set for the year and see where I'm standing so far.

A bad habit I'm going to break: Biting my nails.

FAILING MISERABLY. I took my nails off for a bit and I just bit them down and I couldn't handle having such a pretty ring and ugly nails.. so my nails are back on for now ;)

A new skill I'd like to learn: HTML.'

Nope. Haven't even starting thinking about this one. But, hey! I've still got 9 months left to figure it out!

A good deed I'm going to do: I want to volunteer to help with some sort of cancer events, hopefully lung cancer.

Ugh. I'm not doing well with this one either.. I'm hoping that with my new work schedule, I will be able to fit some more in, though, once I get settled with it. 

A place I'd like to visit: Washington, DC!

This plan is still in the works to go visit Christian's sister. But looking at my new schedule and weekends I already have  plans, it probably won't be until mid to late summer. 

A book I'd like to read: Anything and everything.

In January my grandmother gave me my tablet that was my graduation present (in May...) and I finally started downloading some books and I've already read 3! I've downloaded Divergent but I haven't had a chance to start it yet!

Reading with Zuko

A letter I'm going to write: One I'll never send.

This hasn't happened yet, either. I don't think I'm emotionally ready for it though, so I'm going to need a little more time. 

A new food I'd like to try: I'd actually just like to start eating healthier.

Haaaaaa. Nope. I went to the doctor in February and she told me I was underweight so I've just been eating everything I want. I do want to work in some exercise, first and then throw in the food. If I ever get there.. 

I'm going to do better at: Staying positive.

I'm definitely doing much better here! It helped that I had a few great months at work to fix my mood a little too. And I'm just trying to remember how blessed and lucky I am right now and how many wonderful things I have going for me. Yes, there will always be bad days and even bad weeks, but it doesn't outdo all the other wonderful things. 

Pinterest

And I have one more goal to add here that's not on this list: Start a new job.

Well, when I wrote this I meant with a different company and I was dead set on it. But as I got better at my job and other opportunities came up, I went for it. And as you guys know - I just got a promotion! I'm slowly transitioning into it and so far I really like it! I love knowing that I'm doing something useful and helping other people exceed at their jobs.