This month was my second time participating in the Cara Box exchange. The first time I did it, I sent my box, but never got one, so that was a bit disappointing. But this time was very different, and it was so much fun!
My first partner was Jill. We had a blast getting to know each other. I found out this girl lives in one of the prettiest states in the Union (Tennessee), loves anything pumpkin related, and has a banana tree named Burt on her back porch. Sounds like fun, doesn't she?? Well she is. Go visit her, and say hi.
Do you ever have those moments where you meet someone, and you just instantly click? And you know like right from the start that you're going to be friends, and that's just pretty much that? And you feel completely comfortable telling them your whole life story, and they tell you theirs and you can just sit and commiserate with them about all the things you have in common and how silly other people are?
That's how it went with me and Justine. I can't even tell you how many novel-length emails went back and forth between us in the last couple of months. It's been so fun, and it's so nice to meet someone (even online) and know right away that they will have your back, and they're there for support any time you need it.
So now, on to the reveal!! Here's what she sent me:
1 // A very sweet card of encouragement that totally made me smile
2 // A cute little notebook. I love it because it's small enough to fit in my purse, plus I needed a new notebook for blog topic ideas anyway! :)
3 // An adorable coffee mug. There are also two packets of salted caramel hot chocolate mix (YUM!) and four Sharpie pens in there. (Side note: This is just further evidence that this girl gets me, because Sharpie pens are like, my absolute fave, but I never told her that.)
4 // 'Tis the Season scented hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works
5 // A package of DELICIOUS caramels
6 // Nail polish, in a really dark blue color, which is awesome, because dark colors on my nails is my jam
7 // A little candle from Bath and Body works in the Peach Bellini scent. Another favorite that I didn't mention to her, and she just magically got right. :)
8 // An eyeshadow pallette from Ulta. It got a little banged up in the shipment, but I love the colors, so I'm still going to clean it up and use it.
How fun is this??!! Justine and Jill were both such bright spots in my life over the past couple of months. I have so enjoyed getting to know them, and I am looking forward to meeting some more girls through future swaps! If you are interested in joining future swaps, keep an eye on Kaitlyn's blog for sign up dates!
I haven't posted in over a week. It's not because I haven't wanted to, because believe me...I've wanted to. It's because I haven't been able to figure out what I wanted to say, or if I even wanted to say it. Once things are out there in the interwebs, they're impossible to take back. So I have erred on the side of discretion, which I've heard is the better part of valor. So sorry for the disappearance, and I'll try to do better. I do have some awesome content planned for this week though..And a really fun giveaway that I am SUPER excited about..it's an opportunity I've been trying to get for a long time, and I finally did, so I can't wait to share. :) I haven't participated in a SundaySocial for a while, so I figured I'd join in on it this week. It's kind of a fun way to get to know each other, don't you think? Name 4 jobs you've had in your life: Legal secretary, Dispatcher/911 Operator, Customer Service Rep, business owner Name 4 movies you would watch over and over: Pitch Perfect, The Princess Bride, You've Got Mail, and It's A Wonderful Life. Name 4 places you've lived: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Nevada Name 4 of your favorite foods: Pizza, Honeycrisp apples, steak burrito bowls from Chipotle, and bagels Name 4 things you always carry with you: Generally speaking, I will have my phone, chapstick, my wallet, and keys, though sometimes I will leave my purse at home on purpose. Name 4 places you've been on vacation: Ummm I don't take a lot of vacations to interesting places. I grew up going to Nevada to visit my grandparents, and then when I lived in Nevada, I took a couple vacations back to Minnesota. And my family spent a week in San Diego playing on the beach one year, and we also had a Christmas vacation down in Florida, so I suppose those count too.
This picture has nothing to do with anything. It's just a funny picture of a guy skydiving with a dog.
My brain is kind of in weird word-vomit kind of place right now, so I apologize in advance for the insanity that will be this post.
Three things that make me crazy....because I spent half this morning with my jaw hanging open at people's stupidity:
1 // I hate it when I'm waiting in line somewhere (like Starbucks), and there are like three or four people in front of me, so like basically, the person right in front of me has plenty of time to peruse the menu and think through the Starbucks offerings and decide what they want, but they don't, so when they finally get to the front of the line, and I'm all excited that I'm next, they take THREE BLOODY MINUTES to figure out what they want. And then they change their order halfway through its creation. This exact situation happened to me this morning, so the irritation is still a little fresh.
2 // It drives me nuts when people don't use their turn signals when they're driving. I can't read your mind, losers!! How am I supposed to know that you're trying to get over into my lane? There is really no reason for you to speed up to be even with me, just to slow back down so you can move into the lane behind me. Unless the reason is just to flip me off, in which case it's still completely unacceptable and also rude. Jack wagon.
3 // Boyfriend tells me I am high-maintenance for this, but it drives me nuts when there are a bunch of empty tables in a room or restaurant, and people come and sit down right next to where I am. I don't know why it irritates me so much - I know it's completely snotty and irrational on my part. But it just does.
Three sports related things (just so I can link up with Sara):
1 // The stinky Minnesota Vikings finally had their first win on US soil last night, against the Redskins. It's about dang time, Minnesota. Get your shiznit together. (Quick side note: There's all this hulabaloo lately about the Redskins having a "racist" team name or whatever...how does everyone feel about that?)
2 // Hockey is back! And though I don't really actually care about it slash really don't care at all, Wild games are still really fun to go to, so hopefully I will get to go to at least one game this year.
3 // THE BEARS BEAT THE PACKERS ON MONDAY NIGHT. This is actually probably like the best news ever for me, since I'm a Bears fan and a Packers anti-fan (which basically means I hate them). Shannon and I had a lovely little Twitter war going on for a few minutes on Monday, but then I fell asleep like a loser before the game ended so I couldn't even properly gloat. That part sucked. But the Packers losing part was still pretty awesome.
Seven things that are completely unrelated to anything, including each other:
1 // I am going to make a delicious dip for Fat Sunday this week. It's really easy, consisting only of cream cheese, sausage crumbles, and Rotel dip. And it's worth every dang calorie in it. So I'm pretty jazzed about that.
2 // Family Christmas is officially scheduled, and people from the outlying parts of the country are procuring plane tickets and everything, which makes it even cooler. I CAN'T FREAKING WAIT.
3 // Starbucks is having a BOGO on holiday beverages November 14th-17th from 2-5pm. You're welcome.
4 // Boyfriend and I hit up the amateur hour at the local comedy club last night. It was basically as to be expected, I suppose. Some of the performers were straight up terrible and got nothing but pity laughs (or drunk laughs from the crazy girls sitting next to us - see #3 annoyance above), but some of them were actually really good, and really funny. It made me think of Taylor and her journey down the comedic circuit. And I found myself really wishing that she were performing last night instead of the stupid not-funny people, because I pretty much crack up through every post that she ever writes, so I imagine listening to her tell jokes is probably enough to make laugh hard enough to start snorting and falling off my chair all classy lady style.
5 // I finally ordered an Erin Condren planner. I am way too excited about it. I didn't go all out crazy and get the personalized photo stickers, even though I wanted to, because of the time it would have taken to pick out all the faces and stuff, but I did get the birthday/anniversary/etc stickers, which will add a fun piece to the planner. And the customization on the cover?? OMG the cutest thing ever. Just wait 'til you guys see it. You'll agree with me, I promise.
6 // I REALLY miss watching "Friends" every day. I used to fall asleep to random episodes every night, but since all of my stuff is STILL in storage out in Vegas, (and we only have the one TV, and it's in the living room, not the bedroom) I'm pretty much limited in what I can watch when I fall asleep. I've been turning on "The West Wing" on Netflix recently, which is interesting, certainly, but doesn't quite fill the void.
7 // I want donuts right now. And salt and vinegar potato chips. And some delicious tomato macaroni a la my mom. Oooh, and my dad's fried chicken. Basically I want to eat all the things right now.
8 // The blogging community is kind of a cool thing. Like it's really interesting to look back and think about the ways that I have made some friends over the course of the past few months. And isn't it weird to think about the fact that like, these friends and I - Kaylee, Belinda, Bethany, Justine, and Juliette, just to name a few - we've never even met!? We just read random snippets of each other's lives, and tweet at each other, and send random texts and snapchats and emails, and that's all! More and more, I'm understanding that blogging is a club. And you can't be in it until you're in it, but once you're in, you're always in. It's totally sweet, and completely weird, all at the same time.
A friend of mine posted this picture on Facebook this morning:
Let's all just take a second and think about this.... So often, people refuse to take responsibility for their own lives. Sometimes this comes in the form of blaming others for your mistakes. Sometimes, and perhaps even more often, it comes in the form of simply not appreciating the great power we have over ourselves.
Can we control the way other people treat us?
Can we control whether or not we become victims of crime or other mistreatment?
Can we control the way people speak to us?
Can we really control anything at all, aside from our own thoughts and behavior?
More often than not, the answer to those questions is "no". I can't control any of those things. And sometimes that really sucks, because let's be honest, people can be really awful, and to be on the receiving end of any of that is just plain crappy. But what I CAN control - and here's the best part - is how that treatment affects me. I can let it ruin me, or I can let it make me. I don't have to break under the pressure of the way other people behave. I have the freedom to stand strong, to turn the frustration of being mistreated into something awesome, just because I want to. I am often guilty of underestimating the power of my brain when it comes to this kind of stuff, of underestimating the power of both positive and negative mental processes. But I have discovered that when I am conscious of what I'm thinking about, and I am intentional about being positive, about finding the good in every person and situation, and in ignoring negativity, then I am a happier person, as whole.
And happy people don't kill their husbands. They just don't.
I'm sure at some point, everyone has seen or heard the Charles Swindoll quote, "Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it." I'm feeling a bit convicted about that today. It's so easy for me to whine and complain, to focus on the negative - why is this happening to me, why doesn't anything ever go as planned, why me, why me, why me - instead of setting my sights on the positive things, and intentionally turning crappy situations into good ones because of how I react to them. So I am making a commitment: I will be intentional in my thought processes. I will purposefully choose to be positive, to let my thoughts make my life something incredible. I will be thankful for the gift I have been given, the gift of being able to breathe, love, think, dream, create, write, read, get older, and just LIVE. Who's with me?
In the last few months, I've seen a few posts here and there where people wrote lists of things at which they are skilled. Like, some people take really short showers. Which is a talent, actually, because even though I too get annoyed with the long-drawn out ridiculousness that is the process of a girl taking a shower and getting ready for the day, I am a big fan of giving the actual shower the lions share of that time frame. Which means I have absolutely no problem whatsoever taking a 30 minute shower and then spending exactly five minutes on post-shower-about-to-leave-the-house prep. But anyway, so I was thinking about writing a list of things that I do really well. But then I realized that that's kind of a short list, and also not very entertaining, so I scrapped the idea and went on about my merry way. And then Miss Allie Pants wrote a post yesterday about stuff she's bad at, which was awesome, and I was instantly like, "I NEED TO DO THAT." So. Let's begin. 1 // Staying awake. I am TERRIBLE at this. Which is weird, because a lot of times I have this weird insomnia stuff, but basically, any time Boyfriend and I sit down to watch a movie or something, and it's after the really really late hour of 7pm, it's pretty much a given that I'll be sawing logs long before the movie is over. He doesn't even ask me anymore what movie to watch on a given evening .. instead, he asks what movie I'd like to fall asleep to, and then gives me grief for being the worst movie watching companion ever. And I can't even complain because he's totally right.
This is me, about 17 minutes into the movie. Every time.
2 // Keeping my clothes organized. Honestly, if I didn't know better, I'd swear that there are little gremlins who come out when I'm not looking and throw all of my clothes into complete disarray. One second everything is folded and organized properly, and then I turn my back for two bloody seconds, and all of a sudden it looks like a damn tornado came through my room. Madness, I tell you.
3 // Walking in a straight line and/or being coordinated at all. When I'm tired, especially, I seem to lose all depth perception I may have otherwise had (which probably wasn't much to begin with, let's be honest). And then I do things like walk into walls, fall over couches, and generally look like a seal on dry land. Even when I'm not tired, I really can't be trusted to have any concept of where I am in relation to a countertop, a wall, a curb.... Gotta watch me every minute.
4 // Not dancing amazingly. (See what I did there??) Boyfriend likes to tell me that I'm not a good dancer, but really, despite the aforementioned clumsiness, I am actually quite the exceptional dancer, and I'm pretty sure Boyfriend is just jealous of my moves. I mean, I trained Chandler Bing for crying out loud. And he's awesome, which means that clearly, I'm awesome too. Just look at all this evidence.
And last, but not least... 5 // Eating healthy, especially when I'm stressed. Does this really need more explanation?
