April Review

Isn't that the cutest little chick? He's on there for two reasons: Easter and the fact that I went to Baby Animal Days. Good times.

So for the first time this year, my Monthly Review post will (hopefully) be more exciting. I'm actually going to write about what happened this month! Shocker for something called a "Monthly Review". Unlike my lengthy reviews last year, I'm keeping things short and sweet and labeling all events by the date they happened. Be sure to leave a comment and let me know if you like the new outline of my monthly review! And be sure to stick around till the end to see how well I did on my New Year Resolutions this month!

1st: I watched the finale of How I Met Your Mother and was truly disappointed. You can read all about that HERE. I also just had an incredibly emotional day and I can't even fully describe how awful the first day of April was. And that's no April Fools Day joke.

5th: Chris and I visited Baby Animal Days!!! You can read about it HERE. I GOT TO PET A COW!!!! It was such a fun event and I hope we can go back every year!!

7th: Happy Birthday to my friend Lauren!!! On this day I began really freaking out about our move to Texas. There was only four weeks left and so much left to do! I was feeling completely overwhelmed!!

10th: I donated plasma for my second time. You can read about my first, disastrous time, HERE. This time was a bit better. I tweeted through the whole experience. I still got lightheaded and they had to bring me juice and crackers, but I made it through okay.

12th: I donated plasma again and I didn't get lightheaded or dizzy or pass out or anything!! I did great! The guy who helped me earlier that week brought be juice and crackers before they even put the needle in me. And anytime he passed me he would make sure I was doing alright. It was nice. Because of my two plasma donations that week I was finally able to buy groceries! Yay! Now we have food in the house and we hope it lasts us until our move.

13th: There has been a duck living right by our front door just sitting on some eggs. On the 13th the eggs were hatched and we got to see three little ducklings! Even though ducks scare me, these little ducks are really cute. But I'm still paranoid about them living right outside my door. (PS, they were gone the next day and have never come back, only leave pieces of egg shells and tons of feathers.)

14th: I had an idea. An ingenious idea that has the potential to change my whole life.... but I'm not yet ready to share it yet. You'll have to wait a bit longer.

15th: I am not doing a Monthly Favorites post this month so I'm adding a few things on here. And on this day I wrote the most popular post of the month: 10 Weird Things About Me.

19th: We went to the aquarium and OH MY GOSH I'M IN LOVE!!! I have always been obsessed with aquariums and zoos and the new aquarium in Draper is absolutely amazing!!! There were so many incredible fish there and I had so much fun with my hubby, brother, brother-in-law, and mother-in-law. It was the best and, since there is no Monthly Favorites post this month, this was my most favorite event of the month! So much fun! And it got me super excited for our Texas move and going to SeaWorld!!

20th: Easter Sunday! I had a fabulous Easter with my family. I always feel so spoiled by the Easter Bunny and this year was no exception. I love my parents and all they do for me and now for Chris as well. Easter is about remembering the resurrection of our brother, Jesus Christ. I love Easter and what it truly means. And I apologize for not doing a blog post about my Easter. If you would like one leave a comment below and let me know. Also on this day, happy 19th birthday to my sweet cousin Cami! I love her so much!

23rd: I was given a free dinner on campus for cleaning up after the Howl! It's nice to go to the all-you-can-eat place for cleaning up after college students at 1:00am. The Howl is one of the many reasons I do not like my job... But (when this post is published) I am no longer working there. We're moving to Texas and I get to find something new. I'm excited!

24th: HALLELUJAH FOR TAX REFUNDS!!! That's all I have to say.

25th: I finally got to see Divergent and I was so insanely happy and I loved it so so much!!! I just want to go see it again and again!!

26th: Chris and I went to the temple with my cousin Cami (and other family members) as she went through for the first time to prepare for her mission! It had been a while since we went through the temple and it was good for us as we are preparing for our big move. Afterwards we went to my cousin Nate's house and had lunch and I got to hold his adorable baby Will. He's the cutest! Then Chris and I went home and fell asleep for hours. Seriously, Chris slept in until like 7:00. It was weird, but I felt incredibly caught up on sleep, so that was a plus.

28th: We got our storage unit so we could start moving the things not coming to Texas with us into storage. It's insane how soon we're moving!!

30th: Tomorrow is my last day of work! What??? Two years ago I thought I was done with my janitor job forever but then last year after three months of unemployment I had to take it back. This past year (school year) of working as a janitor was really hard. It's been four years of being a janitor and that's just not what I want to be doing with my life. I love my boss, I love my coworkers, and it really isn't a bad job. It's just not me, and I'm happy to be leaving and hopefully I don't have to go back again. It's weird to be leaving the same job twice, but I'm excited for new adventures in Texas!

Also, on May 2nd, we move to Texas! This is one of the craziest things I've done in my life but I'm so excited and Chris and I are just happy that we get to try out this new adventure together! As you can guess, I will not be writing on this blog until we're all settled, so it may be a while til my next post (besides scheduled posts about Book Club and Charity of the Month) so I'm sorry that I won't get to talk with you for a while. I love all my readers and wish us luck and safety on our journey to Texas! When I get back I'm sure I'll have lot to say about the longest car ride of my life!

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And now onto how I'm doing on my New Years Resolutions. You can read all about my New Years Resolutions HERE.

To gain 100 blog followers: Again, technically I do have over 200 when I add up all my social media sites, but I'm focusing on getting 100 on just one site. I haven't been doing much this month to get new followers but this summer gaining more followers is definitely a focus as well as giveaways for my new and old followers!

To run a 5k: I am no longer doing the Color Vibe, which makes me sad, but I have this big goal thing I'm working towards so maybe I'll be trained enough to run a 5k soon. I just have to find one. Maybe I'll do the one in the fall that they do at Thanksgiving Point. We'll see.

To get six pack abs: Definitely have not been working on this this month. I've been eating ridiculously this month but starting in May I have some big plans.

To improve my math skills: I honestly just want to kick this goal out of the mix. I don't really want to improve in math, no matter how bad I am at it! Ugh. We'll see I guess.

To make school more of a priority: This goal is complicated right now. There is a lot going on with my college career that you don't know about yet and it's changing lots of things. I have big decisions to make and so much to think about so this goal is on hold until further notice.

To eat healthier: Major fail this month. Peeps have been my favorite snack. I eat like four big meals a day. Bad, bad, bad! But as I said, May is my month to make a change and I have lots of goals for next month.

To save up more money: Can I just say how grateful I am for tax returns? Thank goodness that payment was able to help us get everything in order for the big move. We don't have a lot saved, but we're hoping this summer job will help us get lots of money to save up for school... and finally getting me a new laptop.

To not procrastinate: I have been slightly been procrastinating this month with packing. It's just so overwhelming to pack up our entire apartment for a second time. Also, this move this weekend is the third place we will be living since we've gotten married... and we're one week shy of a year. I know this has nothing to do with my goal, but it's ridiculous how many places we've lived in one year. But yeah, I've been fairly organized about a packing schedule, but I put it off till like last week.

To read more: I am super excited because Book Club starts back up next month!!! AKA, tomorrow!!! Be sure to check out the Book Club page on my blog to see what we'll be reading. Also, I'm happy for our long drive to Texas in a few days because I can finally read Insurgent which I bought months ago but haven't had the time to read yet. I'm happy that I'll get to read more now that school is out!

To pray and read my scriptures everyday: It makes me so sad every month to get to this goal and realize I'm not doing it. I know it sounds like procrastinating, but I truly believe this move to Texas is a chance to change my life for the better. I'm starting new things, I have new goals, I have new life plans, and so much is changing and I truly hope I can make a change for the better and work on this goal.

This Monthly Review post was much longer, but what did y'all think? If you have any suggestions for how I should do my review posts please leave a comment below. And please feel free to tell me all about your April! 

THANKS FOR READING!! 

Song of the Week: Mona Lisa

I have no real reason for putting this as the Song of the Week other than that I've always liked it. And that's it.

Today my cousin is going through the temple and we get to go with her! I'm really excited, it's been much too long since I've gone and I think I really need the peace the temple brings because we are moving in ONE WEEK!!! Crazy!! My parents will be up here as well and since my mom is like a superhero organizer, she's going to help out a bit with all our packing and cleaning.

This week I will be spending my time packing, so I will not be blogging again until after the move. I have three posts scheduled this week: my April Review, the introduction to May's Charity of the Month, and the books for Book Club for May. But other than that, I will not be posting on here and who knows when we'll get wi-fi and I can post again. So be sure to follow me on Instagram and Twitter so you can keep up with what's going on with the move. I'll also try to post on Facebook as well, but sometimes it's harder to do on my phone. Also, you might as well go ahead and follow me on all those social media sites because I'm planning a big giveaway for my followers!!

Thank you all so much for reading and I hope I can talk to you again soon!! 

Web Video Wednesday: Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

I saw this the other day and it's pretty much the cutest video in the existence of the world. I'm a huge fan of Sophia Grace, she's adorable and super talented. Since we're busy getting ready for our move to Texas (9 days!!!) I'm not posting much but doing a quick web video is easy for me, so enjoy!

10 Days Till Texas

Yesterday I put up a Facebook status "11 days till we move to Texas" and like a million people didn't apparently know that we were moving. Ha ha. Maybe they should just read my blog...

Anyways, it's ten days till we move! This is crazy! There is so much to do before we go and I'm kind of stressing out but I'm getting really excited to go off on this adventure!

As I've mentioned before, because of all the stress of finals, packing, moving, paying off bills, etc. this blog is on the lower end of my to-do list. So I do apologize that I will not be posting as much for the rest of this month as we get ready to move.

Ironically, whenever I say I'm taking a break from blogging, that month I get the most page views and this month is no exception. Last December I said I was taking a break and that month I got the most page views ever. And this month it's getting up there. So thank you for visiting my blog this month even though it's boring. I love all my readers and I appreciate your support during this crazy time!

10 Days Till Texas!!!! 

Song of the Week: Trouble Maker

So for the longest time (since this song came out) I would get so excited when it came on the radio and I was just so in love with it, but when I got back home I completely forgot about it. Which is why even though I have loved this song from the beginning, it's never been my Song of the Week. That's also why I never had this song on my iPod. But this week I heard it twice and I wrote down that I needed to make this the Song of the Week, so here it is. I just love how catchy and fun this song is and I just want to dance to it!

If you follow me on Instagram you may know that my blog went over 61,000 page views this week! I am truly grateful for all my blog friends! You all mean so much to me and I appreciate all your love and support! Thank you for making this blog possible! 

My Typical Look

SHIRT: Kohl's (And that this only thing I know exactly where it's from, sorry!)

First off, I apologize for the weird sunlight on my face, we're still figure out the whole "fashion photo" thing and where and when and lighting and so on and so forth. Also, I apologize that I am super lazy and have my hair in a pony-tail the majority of the time. I'm kind of just waiting for my hair to grow longer so I will like having it down more.

So I wore basically this same outfit three days in a row. Black pants, a t-shirt, and a lightweight shirt or jacket on top. It's just so comfy without looking completely lazy. But I wish I had taken a picture of my second day outfit as well because I actually did my hair that day and I looked cute. Ha ha.

It's been a weird week, it went by super fast and I had a list of things to do but didn't do any of them. And it's not like I was incredibly busy... I am just lazy I suppose. I need to focus more though because I have so much to do before our big move to Texas and it's coming up fast!! Wish me luck on getting everything done!

10 Weird Things About Me

I have been getting some new followers and decided to reintroduce myself to all the new followers... in a weird way. Here is a random post about 10 Weird Things About Me.

The majority of these photos are from my "Fashion" posts. You can find all those posts by CLICKING HERE! 

1. I always eat crusts first. 
This is true with pie, pizza, sandwiches, etc. For me, the crust is the worst part so I'd rather just get it over with. Although occasionally I just won't eat the crust at all. It depends on my mood.

2. I've never gone boating. 
This may not sound weird to most of you, but when I was in high school if I ever let it slip that I've never been boating everyone would freak out! This is partially because many of my classmate's families had boats, but mine didn't so we never went. I've been in a canoe and been white water rafting, but that's basically the extent of me and boats. Honestly, boats kind of scare me though because when I see a cruise ship I cannot fathom how that thing can be floating and it freaks me out!

3. I hate skiing.
Again, this may not seem weird to you, but growing up in Utah, it's weird if you never ski or snowboard. And I never do. I first tried skiing when I was little and vowed NEVER AGAIN but this year I tried snowboarding and it was alright. But yeah, I hate skiing.

4. I hate gum. 
I can't even fully explain my hatred of gum. The smell makes me nauseous, chewing it makes me gag, and I'm one of those "lucky" people who tends to step on gum a lot. I'm also a janitor who occasionally (but rarely because I try to get someone else to do it) has to scrape gum off the carpet. They really shouldn't have me clean up the gum though because it makes me want to throw up and that could potentially just make a bigger mess. I hate gum so much that I don't like being around people who chew it (my poor mother who is addicted...) Somehow, unintentionally, I got my husband (boyfriend at the time) to stop chewing gum around me, and he very rarely chews gum at all now. But when he sneaks one I can always smell it and it makes me sick.

5. I can't sleep without socks on.
Pretty much everyone I know has to have their socks off in order to sleep, but I'm the opposite. I need my socks on. I love the warmth! But I also just have a sock addiction, because I can't even walk around barefoot in my own home, I need my socks! My husband always teases me for it and thinks it's a miracle when I don't have socks on, because it kind of is. It's not that I'm insecure about my feet, I just like the warmth and comfort of socks all the time.

6. I'm more comfortable having strangers read this blog than people I know.
I didn't really tell anyone about my blog for over six months. Something about knowing my friends and family are reading my blog freaks me out! I think I feel they will judge me for some of the things I write, and if a stranger reads my blog and judges me, who cares? They don't know me. But if someone I know is reading my blog it honestly freaks me out. Sorry friends and family! It's nothing personal I swear!

7. I say I hate cheese but eat it all the time. 
One of my most favorite foods in the world is nachos and I love putting cheese on things, but whenever someone talks about cheese or asks me about cheese I'm like "Ew, gross!" And I honestly don't know why!!  I do the same with Goldfish, I always say I hate them, but I eat them and they are cheese so it's totally relate-able. There is some cheese I don't like, and I'm not a huge fan of eating cheese plain, but I don't know what compels me to say I hate cheese all the time, because I obviously don't hate it.

8. I was born a snake.
Okay, that's a lie. But that's what my dad likes to say sometimes. Basically I was born a few weeks late and there wasn't enough amniotic fluid left to I came out incredibly dry and, as my dad says, scaly. I don't have any pictures to prove it though and I don't know what it looked like, but it's an exciting story I guess.

9. If my nail polish chips even a little, I peel it all off and start over.
I absolutely cannot handle when my nail polish is chipped, even just a little bit. And I'm kind of obsessive over it too. This is why I don't wear nail polish all that often. But I am a huge fan of Impress Press-On Manicure because it doesn't chip or fall off easily and want to start using those more (You can read my review on Impress HERE).

10. After swimming or a hot-tub, if I don't put lotion on my hands right away I get super irritated.
Whenever I go to a pool I have to take lotion and immediately put it on after I get out. It honestly drives me insane the way my hands get wrinkled and dry and I have to remedy it immediately. You can ask my husband, when we went hot-tubbing and I couldn't get to lotion fast enough I just kept complaining about it and tried to moisten my hands in drinking fountains or by licking them (gross I know). I cannot handle having dry hands, it leads me to insanity.

And there you have it, ten weird things about me. Leave a comment below and share something weird about you! 

THANKS FOR READING! 

Ducklings

DRESS: Ross CARDIGAN: Target SHOES: TJ Maxx NECKLACE: Vanity

It was super windy. The weather is warming up, but it was so windy it made it cold. I had to stand a certain way or my hair and the front section of my dress would blow around. I was having a good hair day though and I love this dress so very much so I needed pictures of it.

Before taking the pictures I stepped outside to find the duck eggs right outside our apartment had hatched!! I can't get a good picture. I've seen three ducklings and there's one egg that hasn't hatched yet. As much as I hate ducks, they are pretty cute and they make cute little noises. I'll try to get pictures soon with my real camera. Luckily the mama duck hasn't been around, because I'm kinda worried she wouldn't like us getting close to her babies. And ducks scare me. So I'm being super careful.

Song of the Week: If I Had A Million Dollars

If I had a million dollars I would pay off my student loans, my husbands students loans and my debt to my parents and then buy myself a car (because I'm so sick of not having a car and having all my cars taken away by brothers (three times this has happened)) and then honestly I'd probably just stick the rest in my bank account. Maybe buy my parents something nice, they deserve it from all the money they spent on me through dance and me being poor in college. Honestly, I am ridiculously good at talking myself out of buying something, I never buy anything unless it's on sale or I really truly feel I need it. I don't think I would be wasteful with a million dollars.... does that little speech win me a million dollars? Because I could really use it right about now...

Anyways, this week we were cleaning the walls at work and Aggie Radio played this song and it reminded me of roadtrips with my family and just how much I love this song!!! I love Barenaked Ladies!! One time on ballroom tour I said that phrase excitedly in a Wendy's and this older woman glared at me. I meant the band... Basically I'm in love with this song and it's a song I grew up listening to a lot, but it's been a long time since I've heard it.

What would you do with a million dollars? Let me know in the comments below!! 

My Broken Ring // My Proposal Story

So on the day exactly one month from my one year anniversary of being married to my amazing husband, I'm at work, as a janitor, and what happens... a diamond falls out of my ring and is lost forever.

And I am devastated!! 

I looked around for a while but it's a tiny diamond and I had just vacuumed a huge area, I didn't know exactly when it fell out or where it could be, and I just stood there staring at my ring and wanting to cry!

Yes, it may be a tiny diamond and not very noticable, but this is my ring! My most favorite possession in the world! Literally the only time I take this ring off is when I'm showering and then it immediately goes back on. I have been wearing this ring for a year and a half and I'm so incredibly in love with this ring and even the tiniest problem with it breaks my heart!

I told my husband and he, being the amazing hubby he is, immediately know just how sad I was and did everything he could to comfort me. We're going in to the jewelry store tomorrow to see how much it will be to get the diamond replaced, but we're incredibly poor right now so if it's too much we'll have to wait. But that just makes me so sad!

So here is the worst picture of my hand ever (it looks super swollen or fat and also red) that shows how the diamond fell out.

Oh my gosh, my hand looks awful! But you see that black spot on the left side? That's the missing diamond. Super small right? But it's still killing me! I'm just so depressed!! I want to cry!!!

So let's reminice back on the day I got this ring, back on November 3rd, 2012.

Picnic for my birthday.

Here's your present, some beautiful earring, why don't you try them on? 

But wait, what's underneath...

The proposal!! And one of my most favorite pictures in the world! Thank you Chris for having my family hide and take this picture!!! 

Jumping up for a hug because I was so excited! 

This was such a long, tight, wonderful hug.

And the first kiss picture we ever took together. 

I really like this picture too. 

And finally I got to put on my ring! 

So many pictures of my butt. Good thing I was wearing my favorite red pants. 

This is me in shock that my family was walking over. 

Such a happy moment!! 

Then Chris painted my nails because I wanted a picture of my hand and the ring but my nail polish was messed up so it needed to be fixed. I married a guy who will paint my nails, totally the right thing to do. 

The first real picture of my ring!! (And Chris's nail painting job, which isn't much better than mine, but really makes me want to paint my nails black again...)

Making fun of all the cheesy photos like this. My goodness I want to be that skinny again... 

A slightly pregnant looking photo, but really is just an engagement announcement photo. 

And then I started doing cartwheels out of excitement. 

Seriously I was amazing how warm it was that day, this is November in Utah! 

Jumping for joy! 

It's amazing to me that I love him more now than I did then, I didn't think I could love him any more. 

Chris examining the ring to make sure he did a good job. 

Finally, one from my engagement session with Amy Bennion Photography. (She did a fabulous job and was such a nice person to work with, and I won the engagement session so it was all free!!)

Well, one of the main reasons for all those pictures is because I honestly don't think I've shared the whole proposal story with pictures before... and I'm too lazy to go searching for it. So this post turned into my proposal story. 

Anyways, I'm very upset about my broken ring and I hope we can get it fixed soon and cheap. 

THANKS FOR READING!!! 

April Stresses Bring May in Texas

It's stressful enough to work every night and be going to school (while also not wanting to be in school and trying to figure out what to do with my life) but add in the fact that we're moving to Texas at the end of finals week and you have a stressful me.

I just feel like I have so much to do to prepare for Texas! I mean, this is a big move!! Neither of us know anyone in Texas, Chris may have a job ready there for him, but we're just kind of going to Texas blindly not knowing what to do or what to expect. We can only bring what fits in our little car (which I'm nervous about our car even making it to Texas) and there is just a ridiculous amount of change going on here.

I have some doctor appointments to make before we go, we have to find a storage unit for all our stuff that we're not taking with us, we have to donate plasma twice a week to make sure we have enough money to make our journey to Texas, nothing is packed yet, the apartment is currently a mess, we have a duck with five or six eggs living right next to our front door and soon we'll have ducklings as pets, I have to give away my beta fish because they won't survive the trip to Texas, oh yeah, and we only moved four months ago!

I absolutely hated our move last December, it was super stressful and I felt completely alone in whole process. But that was just a move a few streets away from our last place! This is to Texas! 1385 miles away!! As Britney Spears said in her amazing role on How I Met Your Mother, "Welcome to Stressville, population: me."

So this post is to basically say that as I'm going through all the stresses of moving and getting done with this semester of school, this blog is going on the back-burner. I'll still be writing some posts, but it won't be as much of a priority for me right now, and I hope you understand that.

When we get to Texas I have lots of blog posts planned and we have tons of "Texas Adventures" that we will be going on and I will write about them all! I also have a special giveaway planned for the summer, so don't forget to keep coming by!

Thank you to all my new and loyal blog readers! I love you all and I am so grateful for your support in this big change in my life. Thank you for reading my blog! I love y'all!!! (See, I'm preparing for Texas.)

Baby Animal Days

This post is a part of The Cache Valley Checklist.

If you follow me on Instagram then you already know that this weekend I had one of the most exciting moments of my life... I PET A BABY COW!!! And it was amazing! I got to see so many baby cows and they were the cutest things ever! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I have been looking forward to Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center for months now. I was continually on the lookout for the official dates of the event. Finally one day in the mail we received a notice about it and I clung onto the piece of paper, waiting patiently for the event to arrive! When it was finally the week of, we realized we didn't have any money in our bank account and our chances of going were growing dim, and I was truly upset. But my husband, knowing I had my heart set on going, saved up his tip money just for this event!

I absolutely LOVED Baby Animal Days!! We didn't get to see the baby bear, because the line took over an hour and we had to drive down to Salt Lake (another story for another day) but we got to see so many cute little animals and Chris bought me rock candy, which is my favorite.

Honestly, this event was the most exciting thing I've done in a very long time and it made me truly happy! So I'm so happy we were able to go and pet some animals! If you live in Cache Valley or nearby, you should definitely check out this event every Springtime, and don't forget to look at my Cache Valley Checklist for over 100 things to do in Cache Valley!

So now here's just a ton of pictures from the event! Yay!

Showing off our wristbands!

I GOT TO PET A COW!!! So in line there was a little girl before us and she just ran over to the cow and hugged it and kissed his head, it was pretty much the cutest thing ever.  

I held a bunny! And if you know me, holding animals is a pretty big deal for me. 

Santa's reindeer!! 

This is Chris's hand, he said the tongue felt like sandpaper. I don't let my hands go near animal's mouths, even for an adorable little cow.

Sorry, so many cow pictures! But what do you expect from a blog named after cows?

Us with our candy!

Chris showing off his bag of candy.

I'm afraid of bridges, but I totally crossed this. 

Now Chris knows how to handle the duck living outside our apartment. 

This was by far the cutest little horse I've seen in my entire life. Pictures don't do it justice. I couldn't get good ones though because it was dark and rainy the whole time we were there (until we left) and this little guy (actually I think it was a girl) was in a barn, so it was darker anyways. But seriously, tiny, most adorable horse in the whole world. 

Somehow all these pictures got out of order, but what do you guys care, right? So anyways, I love Baby Animal Days!!! 

THANKS FOR READING!!!