get excited, it's the weekend!

Not only is it Friday, it's the start of a 3 day weekend! Yesssss!

Remember last week when I said I was going to an ETSY party? Well, it was super fun! We modge Podged our first initial and chatted for hours. Oh and ate for hours too, duh, that's what girls like to do at girls nights, at least me and my friends do!

My initial is in the window!

I've been reading up on the Paloe diet this week and will be planning recipes next week that are Paleo! I'm easing us into it by allowing my hubby to eat some bread still and we're not giving up milk yet. I think it will be impossible for Matt to give up milk. I really like milk but also like almond milk. I also really like yogurt so I will probably eat that when I get a major craving. Right now the name of the game is trying to eat more good than bad overall!

One of my college Bffs, Ali, came this week for a night! She's getting married and I get to be a bridesmaid! This will be my first wedding to be in besides my own and I'm pumped! She was one of my bridesmaids, we look so proper in this photo from my wedding. This was taken before the ceremony! 

she's doing good bridesmaid work here, i'll be sure to hold her dress up when she needs me to in a few months

Wait until you see what we've been doing to our Airstream! That's what we'll be working on this weekend so there will be pics up next week. It's looking goooood.

Are you doing anything cool for labor day weekend??

Have a good one whatever you are doing!

Back in my day

Back in 2008 I was heading into my senior year of college and the US of A was in the midst of a presidential election. As I watch and hear about the Republican National Convention happening this week, I start reminiscing about the time in college when I got to attend the Democratic National Convention.
Disclaimer: I'm not going to blog about which political party I like more because politics are personal. So, even though I went to the DNC, that doesn't mean that I'm a Democrat and just because I'm watching the RNC this week doesn't mean I'm a Republican. I do prefer one over the other but hopefully you won't be able to guess which one here.

Moving on, the '08 election was an exciting one for me because I was a young wanna be reporter all excited about politics and willing to do whatever I was told which made me the perfect intern for the Dallas Morning News at the Democratic National Convention. It was one of my best experiences of college to work at the DNC plus I got 3 hours of credit for a 2 week experience, awesome.

our place in the media pavillion

inside the hall at Pepsi Center

that's Katie Couric!

Me on the floor

rocking my khaki pants

the convention underway

At the DNC I saw lots of celebrities! Stevie Wonder, Kirsten Dunst, Ann Hathoway, Cheryl Crow, Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper, pretty much every reporter you know, and every democrat in politics (John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, the Bidens, the Obama fam). It was awesome seeing so many celebs in one place over the week.

As an intern for The Dallas Morning News I was assigned 3 stories from the editors that ended up on either the political blog and one ended up as a blurb in the actual paper so that was awesome. An editor would yell out, Michelle, go to the convention center, find this random person and interview them, then get back here within an hour and write us a story. It was crazy busy and the editors treated me and the other 2 interns like part of their team. They didn't baby us, they threw us in the craziness and let us work.

The craziest part of my internship was acting as an assistant to the photographers.They were under a lot of pressure especially during the big nightly speeches to get the money shot of the speaker for their paper the next morning or their website immediately. They needed to run their memory cards to the photo editor at the back of the room throughout the speeches but obviously could not leave their spot to do that. That became my job.

As a small person I was able to get through the insane crowds of people quickly without causing a ruckus. The Dallas Morning News only had so many floor passes to hand out to their reporters and an intern is sure not getting a pass to go wherever they please at a big event like the DNC. However, the editors still needed me to run the photographer's memory cards from the photographer to the editor throughout the night but without a floor pass. I was up for the challenge. My method was to walk quickly onto the floor of the convention with confidence. When I got in amongst the delegates I got on my knees and crawled through the crowd. Then had to get the attention of our photographer who was right up against the stage photographing and crawl as close to her as I could get, grab her memory cards and hand her some fresh empty ones.

It was great and I felt super helpful during each night of the convention plus I was very proud of my ability to sneak into places I wasn't authorized to be.

What We're Eating This Week

Breakfast- egg and bacon on an English muffin

I made scrambled eggs in a muffin tin ahead of time and cooked bacon in the oven so all my ingredients for these yummy egg and bacon sandwiches on an english muffin are ready to be heated up and eaten quickly!

Lunch-leftovers, tuna salad, fruit

Dinner-

Source: skinnytaste.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Had these buffalo chicken wraps already this week and they are so so good! I highly recommend them!
Pork chops and sweet potatos
Shrimp Stirfry
Chicken Fajita Nachos
Grilled Salmon on salad

Dessert- I made chocolate chip cookies with Barley Flour, Honey, and Greek Yogurt in hopes to cut out all of the bad ingredients that are in cookies but still have them taste somewhat normal and good. These are very dense but good!

Source: wholegrainscouncil.org via Michelle on Pinterest

Source: muffin-topless.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Chocolate Greek Yogurt- Chocolate is a huge weakness of mine and I can't cut it out of my diet, that would be depressing! So, I know I'm going to eat it so, I'm trying to prepare ahead of time with healthier ways to enjoy chocolate.

That's it! Now that I have my kitchen back I'm all about cooking, and trying get back on the healthy train.

TGIF!

Yayyy for today, TGIF!

I'm going to an ETSY craft party tonight, I'm so excited! I tried to dress extra crafty cool today so I'll feel inspired tonight. (A friend from work is hosting this at her house and has a craft for a group of us to do tonight. There will also be snacks, what's not to love?)

You know you're getting old when you keep up with the weather... that's me now days. I hope it really does rain this weekend (like the weather people promised) because we are having a drought which means I have to water our foundation so our house doesn't  topple over so, please rain.

There was a huge spider in the basement last night, I'm only scared of spiders/bugs if they get on my body so as long as you're on the floor where I can step on you I'm ok. So, thanks for being easy to step on and kill last night.

Ever since college, I am super aware of language like saying "hey guys" to a room full of girls or "Michelle, will you man this table?". To "Hey Guys" I respond with, "I'm not a guy" and to "Will you man this or that" I respond with, "I will woman the table because I am not a man". This is silly I know but I will continue to think this way.

Here's a sneak peak of our backsplash! We did the grout on the backsplash last night! That means we are soooo close to done! Please Lord, don't let our tiles fall off the wall, I am fearful that this might happen even though I know we did a good job putting them up.

Go Matt! Grout that tile!

Happy Friday!! Have a lovely weekend!

Animal Personalities

Did you know I love cats? (I love dogs too so don't be offended if you don't like cats) I especially love these two cats-

Bella- She is sweet, eager to please her family, a little shy around strangers, loves to be outside

Francis- She is sassy, loves to eat, loves attention from her family, not always shy but can be

These girls are my cats I got after I graduated college. I raised them into the perfect little angels they are today.

When I moved out of my parents house after getting married, they loved my cats so much they wouldn't let me take them with me when I left! I can't blame them for wanting to keep them so being the nice daughter that I am, I reluctantly let them keep the two best cats in the world.

Now that I live apart from my cats, my mom sends me lovely updates on what they are doing these days (thanks mom!). I always show my husband these photos and he of course loves looking at them (sarcasm).

Francis laying on my dad while he eats cake. Her expression says, stop taking my picture please.

Bella posing with the centerpiece on my parents table

Francis begging to come inside but, she must stay outside all day because she has just received flea medicine, worst day ever in her opinion.

Bella sleeping

Francis Sleeping, she can get very long

Here is a picture of Gabby, my mom's dog looking angry and sassy because there were contractors at the house and she didn't appreciate it. My mom went to McDonalds to get breakfast since the kitchen was being worked on and was nice enough to get the dog an egg McMuffin too, from this pic it looks like she would rather just pout than eat her breakfast.

Gabby is saying, my life is so hard today, I can't freely walk around the house without running into someone I don't know.

How is it that animals have so much personality?? I just love them. Happy Wednesday!!

A Letter to My 6th Grade Self

In honor of school starting back for all the kids out there, I've been thinking about what I would like to tell my 6th grade self if I could. Here's what I'd say-

Hey girl!

6th grade, it's an interesting place in life to be. Middle school is weird and people can be very self-conscious but, you young lady should not be! Enjoy your friends and ignore trying to be popular or cool. It totally doesn't matter, trust me!

Enjoy eating your lunch of cheese fries, Yoo-Hoo, and an ice cream sandwich everyday. You WON'T be able to eat like this for long without getting super fat.

Be nice to people, this is very important and will make you very happy.

Use up all of your body glitter and glittery eye shadow because after middle school you really won't have many opportunities to wear it.

You know that kid Matt who's in 7th grade? Yeah, you're going to marry him! (Maybe I shouldn't tell you that just yet)

You're skin, well, it's impossible to tan so just wear sunscreen and don't try to get tan because it will only result in lots of painful sunburns.

You're hair, it's curly and there aren't really any good products out yet to make it straight so you should just wear it curly. It will be much cuter that trying to blow dry it and it being poofy. In a few years, there will be awesome straighteners that will work great for you but for now just stick with the curls.

Please learn how to read music better in band class. You'll wish you could read that music later in life!

You know how you're really scared of getting a cavity and having to have it filled? Well, you still haven't had any cavities at age 25!

This year you'll reach your maximum height, sorry you will remain the same height for the rest of your life.

Lots of great things will happen to you in the future, you don't need to worry about a thing. You have so much to look forward to!

Love,
Your 25 Year Old Self

Friday's Letters

Dear cooler weather, you feel so amazing! We slept with our windows open last night and our house was nice and cool all night, I love it. I thought the open window in our bedroom would help me wake up with the sun and spring out of bed easier but no, it did not.

Dear summer, I still love you and don't consider you over yet (even with cooler temps)! I will not transition to fall even though everyone is ready for fall to start.

Dear kitchen, (have you been wonder how our kitchen remodel is doing???) you are very close to done and I loooove how you're looking! Here's a sneak peak of a how it looks, I took this pic this morning.

Dear people who like to read, I read two good books lately- Ali and Nino and the Official Biography of the Queen Mother. Ali and Nino is a love story of an Azerbaijani boy who falls in love with a Georgian princess. It takes place during WWI when the world as they know it is changing forever. It's a very unique novel.

Happy weekend, I hope it's a great one!

In College I was...

In college I was cheap. I mean, I'm not sure why I was so cheap since I was such a high roller with my job at the school newspaper that paid me $8 a week to write a weekly opinion column and my other various baby sitting jobs. Obviously I was making big bucks. However I still liked to pinch my pennies, here are some examples.

I lived in on campus housing but because I lived in an upper classman apartment, we had to provide our own toilet paper. I felt that my school supplied toilet paper to every other dorm on campus so I too was entitled to toilet paper. So, being a college student I always had a back pack on. When I was in another bathroom somewhere on campus and saw an extra roll of toilet paper I'd put it in my bag and bring it home. My roomates appreciated my gifts of free toilet paper because none of us ever wanted to be the one to actually buy it. I never purchased a single roll of toilet paper my entire senior year.

Text Books- we all know how crazy expensive they are! I hated spending $300-$500 on books so I thought, maybe the school library will have my text books. They did! Some books you could check out and keep for nearly the whole semester and some you could only check out in 2 hour increments. After I discovered this, I'd just borrow my text books from the library and quit buying them my junior year.

Clothes- My roomates and friends were all fashionable ladies and were kind enough to let me borrow their clothes all the time, those were the days! At the end of the semester they would even give me clothes they didn't want to have to pack up and haul home. The best thing I discovered though was in the Freshmen girls dorm, the girls would throw tons of their wardrobe and dorm decor in the lobby the night before they moved out because they didn't have room for it anymore/didn't want to move it/ didn't want the stuff anymore for whatever reason. My roomate and I would go through all this fantastic junk and find nice jeans, cute shirts, all kinds of great stuff!

I just recently stopped going to the hair school to get my hair cut but all through college and early adult hood, I saw no reason to go to a real salon to get my hair cut. I thought the hair school was awesome and it cost $5-$8 for a haircut. I recently got a haircut at a salon though and see that it can be much better than the hair school.

Driving- I would never offer to drive when my friends and I wanted to go off campus. This is annoying behavior for those that I got rides from but I tried to always get somebody else to drive instead of using my own gas. My friends caught on to this one and being the kind friends that they are, they made me do my share of the driving.

Going out can get expensive especially when you have to pay cover charges so, my friends and I would only go out on nights that we could get in free or show up to a club before 11 when there was no cover charge yet. As you can see, they could be cheap too!

I'm still pretty thrifty and but no longer condone stealing toilet paper to save money.

Thanks for stopping by today, have a lovely Wednesday!

It's 40 Degrees Cooler!

I woke up to lovely 60 degree weather this morning, if only I were a morning person I would have gotten out of bed and gone for a walk or sat outside for a couple of hours to enjoy it longer. Is it possible to become a morning person? After getting up and being awake for about 10 minutes I feel great but making myself actually get up is so hard.

The current overcast skies and cooler temps are a much welcome change from the stifling 100 degree weather we had all summer. Today's weather makes me want to go camping.

Source: thegardengrowsaroundus.tumblr.com via Michelle on Pinterest

P.S. Our tree that lost several branches last week got cut down yesterday. Our yard feels so spacious and full of sunlight now. The crew that cut down the tree got the whole job done in a day including grinding the stump (I thought that was fast). Unfortunately, my veggie garden was trampled during the process so the only thing left to possibly harvest will be the sweet potatoes I planted and maybe some bell peppers if the plants can survive getting knocked over and me propping them back up. It was fun to have my garden while it lasted:)

Airstream!

Here we are working hard on the Airstream this weekend! Don't worry, I didn't sit around much this weekend like the picture might suggest.

Here is a before pic of the front of the Airstream-

Here's what it looks like now!

Some exciting progress!!

Also, this weekend I learned that I don't need a kitchen after all! Here I am washing dishes outside in our backyard-

I wrote on Friday that I was tired of eating out and even though our kitchen is still under construction I would cook this weekend. Well, my favorite dish was stuffed bell peppers in the crock pot! They were tasty and healthy, I highly recommend trying them out! Click the pic below to get to the recipe!

Source: marksdailyapple.com via Michelle on Pinterest

How was your weekend? I loved the Spice Girls in the Olympic closing ceremony last night!!

Friday's Letters!

Dear Eating Out for every meal since our kitchen is under construction, I think I'm done with you. It's been a few weeks and I'm ready to get creative and cook without the kitchen. This weekend I plan to grill, make salads, and these crockpot meals-

Source: veryculinary.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Source: marksdailyapple.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Dear Bloggers, do you ever see that you lost a follower and freak out like, whyyyy would someone want to unfollow my blog?? This happened to me today, I will overcome it.

Dear Friday's Letter, I love this form of blogging because I can let out lots of things I want to say but that don't merit a post of their own.

Dear fitness, I've been really lazy this summer (I blame it on the heat!) but, seeing such awesome abs and fit olympians, I've been inspired to work out this week.

Dear all of my neighbors, I'm so glad all of you have pets that I can play with since we don't have a pet of our own. One of my neighbor's dog's name is Charles, he is presh.

That's all for this Friday, have a lovely weekend!!

Ben and Jerry's

For dinner last night I ate this-

I had a few Salt and Vinegar chips too, it was awesome! Don't worry, I did a booty workout after my healthy dinner so I should be good.

I would love to have abs like the ladies running in the hurdle races last night on the Olympics, dang girls, y'all probably don't eat Ben and Jerry's do you?

Crafting

Not much happening around here today. August seems like a transition month, everyone is tired of the heat and ready to get into all the lovely things that fall has to offer. This year, I'm holding on to summer as long as I can even though I love fall. Time is going too fast right now!!

Monday night I got to work on my second order of Mr. and Mrs. Pillow cases from my ETSY shop! The buyer purchased two sets so that's exciting! I keep thinking up new items I want to add to my shop but haven't gotten around to creating yet. I feel like I need a weekend retreat where all I do is craft.

P.S. Watching the women's  gymnastics makes me so nervous!! The skills are so dangerous looking and the girls just look so nervous! I love Gabby Douglas so much! She's my favorite on team USA!!

Bunnies Eating Kale

I don't know about you but I love cute animals!! I found this little baby bunny enjoying a Kale leaf in my garden this weekend.

Then I looked over and saw another little bunny! They must be siblings.

Besides taking pics of cute bunnies this weekend, I ate chocolate peanut butter custard, watched lots of Olympics, went for a run after watching Olympic track, and did a little kitchen work (all we are doing now is sealing our counter tops so that will take several days)! Speaking of olympics, the slow motion replays of the sprinters cracks me up, their faces are so hilarious.

Our Countertop!

I was able to finally pick my first tomatoes out of our garden too! The heat this summer was rough on the tomato plants. I ate one at dinner and it was good!

 Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!

Roadtrip Wisdom

To read more about this roadtrip I'm referring to, click here!

Dear roadtrip, you would not have been complete without good snacks. Our snacks of choice were, pretzel m&m's, salt and vinegar chips, coke, tea, a maybe a few Doritos Loco's tacos.

Dear TCU student (GO FROGS!!) I saw on my flight, I love that you are still wearing the same things I wore while in college (TCU Tshirt, nike shorts, sandals, pony tail, had a nalgene bottle). This means I would still be in style on campus because I'm still wearing those exact same things 3 years later. 

Dear Hotels we stayed at on our road trip last week, here's what I noticed about you-

2.5 stars- free parking, free wi-fi, free breakfast, no pool, slightly ghetto room, old building that smells like cleaning spray, decor from the 70's, no shuttle services, TV from 1997, cable, nice people working there, three floors.

3 stars- free parking, free wi-fi, free breakfast, hot tub and pool!, new building, no weird smells, medium price tag (more than my cheap self likes to spend though), people working there are kinda rude, flat screen TV, cable, three floors.

4 stars- $10 internet, $12 parking, swanky lobby, chic room, big nice new TV, pool but no hot tub, updated decor, $4 breakfast, loud business people drinking at the bar in the lobby, 20 floors, nice people working there.

Dear Amish country in Pennsylvania, I'm not sure if it's ok to pass a horse and buggy, but I did 3 times. Also,
cute local restaurant where we had quiche and bread for lunch with peanut butter silk pie for dessert, you were a very good choice.

Dear Mom's Dutch Kitchen somewhere on the side of the interstate in Pennsylvania, you had humongous portions of food on your menu so mom and I opted to split an entree of fried chicken (4 pieces), mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, cinnamon apples and bread. For dessert we had an apple fritter Sundae. The best part about this local dive is that we were the only ones in the restaurant splitting a meal, everyone else ate their 4 pieces of meat and 3 side dishes all by themselves.

Dear Lobster Rolls, I wish I could eat you everyday, you were so good!

Dear Rain that we encountered everyday in New England, I'm grateful to see you again since you haven't been at my house all summer! Also, I'm happy to have had to buy a cute rain jacket.

Dear Ocean, someday I will spend much more time near you because my heart is so happy when I'm near you!

Dear sailboats, someday I will also experience you! There is something about a sailboat that looks so adventurous and fun.

Dear New England shops, you have the cutest nautical things to buy! If only I needed new dishes I totally would have bought these.

Dear bed, ever since I got home from our trip I've slept like a rock and it's amazing!

Happy Happy Friday everyone! I hope your weekend is lots of fun!