You need to meet Sarah! :)

Hey everybody. I'm off enjoying a lovely lake vacation, so Sarah is taking up my slack! Guys, I am so excited to introduce you to her. She is SUCH a sweet heart. And, she has some excellent blog advice, family friendly drink recipes, and collections of DIY home decor ideas! Please take a moment to hop on over to her blog and get know her...I know you're going to love her as much as I do!

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Hello friends! I am Sarah from To Be Mrs. Collier and I am so pleased to be guest posting for my girl Jordan today! I write about all things random from new recipes, to frugal/simple living, home decor diy projects, marriage, fitness, pinterest projects, & bucket lists. I blog about my curious life. I blog about things that I do that I think that you might find interesting or uplifting. And I hope you like it, because I really like writing it for you to read.

Stop by soon and say,"hello!" I love to meet new friends through blogging. You can also connect with me on pinterest, facebook, twitter, instagram, & bloglovin'.

Sometimes I get really down about life. I'm a graduate student and feel like I've been in school For-Ev-ER. And sometimes, I just need a little bit of inspiration to get me motivated. Hence, I'm bringing you some motivational pins from interest. I hope they bring you a little happiness and brighten your day!

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These are such great quotes. I struggle sometimes with a lack of inspiration/motivation, too, so I really enjoyed reading these quotes and refocusing my brain a little bit!

Never. Ever. Ever.

It's Tuesday again, so you know what that means! That's right, it's another edition of "Never, Ever, Ever"! 

Let's get to it......

Never, ever, ever....

...will I be bummed out if Boyfriend surprises me with Chipotle for dinner. 
...will I enjoy watching golf (in person or on TV).
...will I think a long walk at some point during the day is a bad idea. 
...will I not be ridiculously impressed by the people who arranged and choreographed The Bella's final performance in Pitch Perfect.
...will I understand a mindset that doesn't think work is a good idea. 
...would I date someone who dealt drugs. 
...will I not love pasta. 
...will I not hate having to take two showers if I work out after I have already showered once. 

Monday, Monday...

Oh hey, happy Monday, everybody. Who’s ready to party this week?!

I totally am, because I get to go on a vacation this weekend to a lake that I thought was in Nebraska, but apparently is actually in Iowa. Either way, I’m freaking psyched. More on that after the fact, I would imagine. But I mean other than that, this is basically how I felt about this morning: 

...Especially because I had such an awesome weekend. On Friday, I started my first day at my new (temp) job. I really enjoyed it, which is always nice. It was a pretty tiring day, just because of all the learning I had to do, but overall, not a bad gig. Friday night, Boyfriend and I had a delicious dinner, and then nice time walking around the city, taking in some of the sights. It was such a nice date night….Yay for relaxing quality time with my favorite boy! J

On Saturday, we went to the library for a few hours in the morning. Boyfriend had some OT work he needed to get done, and I just went for the fun of it. We were planning to go to the beach afterwards, but then the sun went away and it was kind of cold, so we nixed that idea. We tried to go to a pet store to play with puppies, since I kind of have puppy fever right now for some reason, but apparently, there are no pet stores in this town that actually sell puppies. Not sure if I buy that, though, so we are going to keep looking.

Saturday night was spent drinking and painting at one of those wine and paint places. Oh, what fun we had! You can see the photographic evidence of our incredible talent here, and here, and here. I may or may not have had three glasses of wine on an empty stomach and been a wee bit drunk by the time the night was over, too. When we were walking back down the street to the car carrying our paintings, we got stopped by some ladies who wanted to know all about it, so we got to show off a little bit, too. Then we Boyfriend watched “Horrible Bosses” (for the first time ever) while I fell asleep on the couch at like, 10pm, like a loser cute puppy.. 

On Sunday, I was up crazy early for some reason, but it worked out okay because I was able to read a whole entire book by like, noon, yay for me. Then we did the three loads of laundry that had been piled up in the corner of the bedroom because we have been lazy lately and not at all on top of things like stupid laundry. And then I went to the mall for a few hours, while Boyfriend stayed home and watched baseball (or something equally boring). I got myself a new black maxi skirt and a white shirt that I can wear to work, so that was fun. Then we went and played some Frisbee golf, which was sort of fun. Definitely not a game I think I would enjoy playing again, but I only actually threw on two of the holes, and then I just wandered around behind Boyfriend while he did the rest, and that was fun, so I think I could get on bored with tagging along in the future, at least.

Sunday night was totally lazy – we watched “Horrible Bosses” again (and yes, I slept through the middle part, again), and flexed our culinary muscles by making frozen pizza for dinner. I know. We are amazing. Actually, Boyfriend taught me that broiling a frozen pizza for like, a minute after they’re done cooking makes the top of it crispy, and makes the entire thing ridiculously delicious. Go try it right now. I’ll be sure to pass along your compliments to the chef when you come back to rave about how freaking good broiled pizza is.

And that, my friends, pretty much sums it up! How was your weekend??

 

 

Schooled on Saturday {Link Up}

Following a blogger and asking these questions before determining whether or not to sponsor someone is a great idea.

If you study abroad, make sure to follow Patricia’s advice for ways to make it awesome.

Image mapping is really important. I had no idea what that even was, but thanks to Sarah, now I know what’s up.

Chloe offered some great tips on how to design and set up a blog to have repeat readers. This is some really great advice!!

What were the most helpful posts that you read this week? Grab a button and link up, because I want to see them too!

Yikes.

I'm not sure I have anything remotely interesting or useful to say at the moment. But I feel my insides bubbling up like something needs to be said, which is usually an indication that I should sit down and write something, so my head can figure out what the heck is going on. So here you go. 

Good news - I got a temp job! It's only for a couple of weeks, but it's full time, and will give me something to do to get out of the house/make me feel like I am once again a (mildly) productive member of society. It actually starts tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it, though I am not at all psyched about the fact that I will have to get up and be presentable by 7:30 in the mornings. Because in case you've missed it, I don't do mornings. 

Boyfriend and I took advantage of the sunshine and somewhat warmer temps today and went to the pool for a couple of hours in the middle of the day today. Playing hooky (or going along when someone else is playing hooky) is always fun, so that was neat, plus I got a little color. Which is awesome, cuz the weather has been ass backwards and cold lately, and this lil lady has been losing her tan. Not cool, Minnesota summer. 

Here's a picture: 

I really, really miss my sister's dog. Who isn't actually named Snarfles, but I call him that anyway. 

We are going to The Melting Pot for a belated birthday dinner tomorrow night. I'm ridiculously excited. I plan to eat and drink far more than is necessary, and generally feel like absolute well-fed crap for the entire 90 minute drive back home tomorrow night. It. will. be. awesome. And also, it's even more awesome because this was a whole big birthday surprise thingy, and I had thought that Boyfriend's bday thing for me was taking me to Noah's Ark last week, but then he added The Melting Pot (aka my favorite restaurant of all time) into the mix, and I totally swooned. 

I think I actually put together a pretty cute outfit today. None of you get to see it, since I have yet to jump into the #ootd pool, but I was pretty proud of myself. Maybe I'll wear it again one of these days and post it on Instagram. Ya'll will have to follow that if you wanna see it. 

Sometimes in life you just need a grape soda. I had one last night and it was glorious. Oh, and I also made jalapeno popper grilled cheese last night, which I think I was inspired to do because of a blog post I saw floating around recently, but I really can't remember, so if it was you and I'm not properly giving credit, I'm really sorry, it's not intentional. Anyway, I was kind of excited at the prospect because a.) grilled cheese, and b.) jalapenos, and c.) grilled cheese again, but I was kind of disappointed in the final result. I think it could have been because I made them with cream cheese mixed together with a Mexican blend cheese with diced jalapeno, and I'm not always a huge fan of cream cheese just out there like that.... but it also could have been because I'm extra-terrible at making said sandwiches in the frying pan, instead of on my handy-dandy George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine (holy long product name, Batman), which is currently residing somewhere in my storage unit in Vegas. Next time I make jalapeno grilled cheese, I'll just dice up the peppers and throw them on top of some Velveeta slices and call it a day. 

I think that's about all I've got for you today. Since I really didn't say anything at all of substance, I'll just leave you with pictures of the two cutest children I've ever seen in my whole entire life. 

          Cheers.