Two Weeks // Blogiversary // Goals

Well, we've come to the end. Only two more weeks until Chris and I move back to Utah. While I expected this summer to really help my blog grow by giving me more time to write, the exact opposite happened, I didn't write at all. Apparently when I'm in school and should be doing homework I blog more than when I'm more free to write. That's probably not how it should work.

At this point I'll admit part of the reason my blogging was so scarce was because once I realized I wasn't writing about our Texas adventure I was embarrassed to suddenly start writing about it at the very end. In my mind since I didn't document the beginning of the summer, why should I start documenting the end?

I also was very disappointed in myself for not sharing any fashion posts this summer. That was probably the biggest new goal for my blog and I've been majorly failing at that. But I'll be honest with you, I've worn most the same things all summer and haven't bought anything new. Also, I know I'm just making up excuses for myself, but with Chris working all the time I haven't had anyone to take my pictures for me.

Oh, so this month marks my two year blogiversary!! Yay! I've been doing this blog for two years which is a pretty cool accomplishment. The only problem is that I thought by two years it would have grown much more. But I'm realizing now that I still have a lot of work to do to make this blog as successful as I want it to be. I'm trying not to compare my success to others (even though it's difficult) and just figuring out what I have to do or continue to do to make this blog successful for me. (Although suggestions are always appreciated. Wink wink.)

I do not have any sort of celebration for my "blogiversary" except maybe the name change. That's pretty cool in my opinion. And I'm purchasing the domain which will make things lots of fun. I think that will change the "success" for my blog and help me to help it grow. I will always want it to keep growing.

My current goals for this blog are as follows:

• Purchase the domain name
• Start posting regularly again
• Start making YouTube videos to go along with my blog posts
• Gain a larger following on social media
• Advertise my blogging friends
• And keep writing the things that make me happy

Again, I apologize for this summer. It was not a good summer for this blog. For me, yeah, I had fun, but for this blog it was kind of a total failure. But that's fine. Everyone and everything has their ups and downs and I still feel this blog is at the beginning of its race, I haven't given up on it yet. 

Thank you to all my readers/friends. I love you all so much for all the support you give me all the time. Thank you for believing in me and returning back to my blog again and again even when I have nothing of importance to say. I truly appreciate all you do for me. You make me happy and I consider you all some of my greatest friends. 

As I said in the beginning, in two weeks I'm moving back to Utah and maybe then I'll be able to refocus myself to work harder on this blog. I've gotten a new planner, I'll be buying myself a new laptop, and I'll be setting goals and deadlines to get the things done on this blog that I want. I'm so excited for what's to come and I hope you are too. 

The Scorpion in the Bathroom

I like Utah. My husband wants us to move out of Utah but I like Utah. Utah feels safe. There aren't giant tornadoes or hurricanes, we're supposed to have a giant earthquake someday but haven't had any big ones yet. It's a protected, safe little area and I like it.

It also doesn't have scorpions. Or at least, if it does, I've never seen one in the twenty-one years I've lived there. And they certainly don't appear in my bathroom like they do here in Texas.

It wasn't the biggest scorpion in the world, maybe two inches long, tan-ish colored, like a baby, but regardless, it freaked me out and I ran out and stood on a chair watching Jenna Marbles and Frankenfood (who tweeted me back so they are pretty much awesome!!) until my incredible husband left work to come to my rescue.

He came home because I had called him complaining but I was so upset (and I think I'm PMSing) so I started crying and once I start crying Chris is like putty in my hands. I swear I wasn't trying to manipulate him by crying, the tears just came because I'm pretty much scared of all insects and animals and scorpions are pretty freaky. And, you know, being a girl is hard sometimes.

So Chris was my hero and killed the scorpion and helped me clean up the apartment a bit, looking for any other pest for him to kill before heading back to work. BEST HUSBAND EVER.

Also, he told his boss to come spray our apartment with pest control, but his boss was a little upset Chris was leaving work to help me, but Chris said if you would have sprayed our apartment two weeks ago when I asked you to this wouldn't have happened. Also, how can Chris go out and sell pest control and talk about how great they are if we personally found a scorpion despite their product? So hopefully the company sprays our apartment soon and this never happens again... because I'm a wimp when it comes to creepy-crawly things (remember the cockroach story?)

Because of the scorpion I went into crazy cleaning mode and have pretty much cleaned everything in our little apartment, because if our bathroom had been clean, maybe the scorpion wouldn't have been hiding in a pile of dirty clothes on the floor. Everything is so clean now and I almost think the scorpion scared me into continually keeping things clean, because I never want to find one in a mess on the floor again.

So moral of the story, maybe it takes a scorpion the scare me into keeping things clean. Hopefully that lasts.

Hey look, I was brave enough to take a picture of the scorpion among a pile of dirty clothes and a shoe.

Why I'm Pumped for July!

It's July!! Yay!! I typically say that May is my favorite month but I think July is a close second, but the Christmas season and my birthday are other favorites. Anyways July is always such a great month and here's why I'm so excited!!

-Independence Day. This is honestly one of my favorite holidays. Call me crazy or pathetic if you want but every Forth of July during a good firework show listening to the great songs about our country I tend to tear up, because I truly love being an American! I love this incredible nation I get to call home and I love being able to celebrate it! I don't know yet what we're doing and I'm super upset I have to work most the day, but I'm still excited nonetheless. And I bought a really awesome outfit for that day.

-Cow Appreciation Day. If you know me and/or this blog, you know I love cows. I love celebrating Cow Appreciation Day and am so happy to have a husband who allows me to celebrate it without thinking I'm a weirdo. Ha ha. This year Cow Appreciation Day lands on July 11th, and I still think it's weird it's a different day every year. Anyways, every year I dress in black and white, wear my cow necklace and earrings, eat ice cream (to appreciate the great product cows help produce), and take pictures with cows. This year I might not get to see cows though. I don't know where to find them here and Chris and I both work most the day, so I won't even see Chris. :( Also, if you dress up like a cow then you can go to Chick-Fil-A and get a free meal! I would wear my footie pajamas and my cow hat but I think both are in our storage unit in Logan. Bummer.

-My Family is Coming!!!! Much more importantly, on Cow Appreciation Day my mom, sister, brother, and grandma are flying to Texas to visit me!! I'm so insanely excited to see them!! My family is really close and I typically see them a lot so living in Texas is kind of difficult being so far away from them. But they wanted to come see me and we're going to Sea World, visiting the River Walk and finding lots of other fun things to do. I'm super excited and cannot wait!!!

-Pioneer Day. Texas doesn't celebrate Pioneer Day, but for the longest time Pioneer Day was my favorite holiday! I spent it every year sleeping on the side of the road downtown SLC to save our spot for the parade with my best friend, Lauren, and her family. It was the absolute greatest!! Even when I wasn't with Lauren there were at least still firework shows. But Texas won't have fireworks on Pioneer Day and I'm sad. Maybe we'll have to buy some and have our own firework show!! And Lauren, next Pioneer Day we totally need to do something together!

-In Laws Coming!!! My in-laws are coming to Texas as well!! But my husband doesn't tell me anything so I don't actually know when. Ha. So my brother-in-law Sheldon was actually supposed to be here the whole summer working with Chris selling pest control, but he had to stay in Idaho for school so he's not coming until the end of this month. Chris is both really upset Sheldon didn't come sooner, but also super excited for him to be coming later. We miss him. We also miss my in-laws and they are coming to visit! It'll be a good month having both sides of the family coming to visit us! We'll have to do lots of fun things!

-Summer Fun. I think the reason July is my second favorite month is because it's when it officially feels like summer, and summer is the greatest!! Also at the end of July my family always goes on our annual trip to Jackson Hole and it's the greatest! This year we don't get to go to Jackson Hole, which is something I've done with my family every summer for as long as I can remember. It'll be really weird not going and Chris and I are both really upset we can't go, but we're going to make sure next year in Jackson will be the best year ever!!


...So now that I think about it, technically maybe I should not be so pumped for this July. I mean, I'm working Independence Day and Cow Appreciation Day, I know after seeing my family for a weekend I'll only miss them more once they leave, Pioneer Day doesn't exist here, and I don't get to go to Jackson Hole... Yeah...Maybe this July actually will be horrible.

Regardless, I am excited for this new month and all the excitement it will surely bring! This is our last full month in Texas! What?!?! I'll be excited in August when we get to go back home, for sure! We won't be leaving till the end of August, right before school starts, but I'm already missing Utah, even though I love the warmth and having a pool. Texas is fun but I think I'm more of a Utah girl. We'll see though...

What fun things are you doing in July? Let me know it the comments below! 

June Obsessions

Typically I do Monthly Favorites posts but since I'm struggling with blogging lately I'm keeping this incredible short. However I may change it so all my Monthly Favorites are like this, more of a list rather than a lengthy explanation for things. Anyways here are my latest obsessions:

-Cinema Sins
-YouTube in general
-Wholly Guacamole
-Bejeweled Blitz (you guys, it's a literal addiction)
-Pokemon
-Not being sick, because currently I am
-Really Don't Care by Demi Lovato
-Demi Lovato in general
-I finished the Divergent series and I can't decide what to say about it... but I want to see the move again
-Catching Fire, just want to see it again!!!
-Taking baths or showers in the middle of the day
-Doing nothing the rest of the day
-Writing in my book
-Family Guy, sigh, I have a problem
-Lying out by my apartment pool
-Eating dried fruits
-Target
-Putting my hair in a bun... every day.
-Bumblebee from Transformers (honestly I have a crush on him, it's totally not weird...)
-But not the new Transformers movie
-Texas thunderstorms (seriously, they are awesome and frequent)
-Getting too excited for the Forth of July even though I have to work (See below)
-Getting even more excited my family is coming to visit me in Texas!!!!
-Chris and I are now primary workers?
-Making money (which sounds petty but honestly we were really struggling before this)
-Sunshine and summertime!!
-Working on my beach body... and failing and eating donuts
-CHOCOLATE!!!


*About working on the Forth of July: I think it's wrong for things to be open on our Independence Day. We close everything for Christmas but we can't do it for the Forth of July? Jesus's birthday, yes, that's totally understandable. But America's birthday, where we gained independence to become a wonderful country that gives us so many opportunities... who cares leave everything open, make it seem like a normal day that isn't actually important in any way. I think everything should be closed on Independence Day, except of course the necessities. Just have fairs and celebrations, make it one big party!! Exploiting Independence Day for sales is awful. I know I'm being kind of weird but I just generally hate the fact that America doesn't respect itself enough to make Independence Day more important. It seems to me like it should be much more important.

May Review

I debated on doing a review this month, but when I realized it was suddenly the end of the month and I hadn't written like any blog posts I felt like I needed to get a review done to kind of explain where I've been.

So if you've been completely out of the loop, I am now in Texas. My husband decided to take a summer sales job here so we packed up the car and moved to San Antonio, well technically right outside of San Antonio. It was so crazy the drive here took us three days (because we chose to stop each night) and then we got here and had to sleep on someone's floor, and then I got offered a job as an office help for the company Chris is selling for and then our lives just turned into working like crazy.

Okay, I only work three days a week so that was kind of a lie, but it is for eight hours a day which is much more than I've been doing in the past. Chris on the other hand works six days a week... all day. I pretty much only see him for dinner, sleep, and on Sundays. He does get off a bit earlier on Saturdays but we've been hanging out with his new work team so we haven't had a ton of alone time.

May 11th was our one year anniversary!!! I honestly am still in shock we've been married a year. Time has literally flown by! We didn't do much to celebrate. We decided not to do gifts and we just wrote letter saying why we love each other. We read them to each other and it was just really sweet and a memorable moment.

And then the month disappeared. I worked out a lot, until recently. I'm working on losing some weight this summer. I want to lose enough to fit back into my wedding dress, that's the goal. And I have been working on a special project but I'm not ready to reveal that to the world because it still has a lot of work to go through. But actually, this "special project" is part of the reason I haven't been blogging on here as much, so I do apologize.

I feel like we're finally making money instead of digging ourselves more and more into debt. It's been fantastic! Sure we still have a lot of money in student loans to pay off, but this summer we're just working hard to create a stable financial base for ourselves, and it's been working really well in our favor.... and thank you so much to the company we work for for paying our rent, because I don't know if we could afford this awesome place without you!

Oh! I've been obsessed with Pokemon lately. Yes, I'm such a dork, but I watched something scary and Chris was sleeping so I wanted to watch something silly to help me forget the scary thing and Pokemon was the first thing I saw, and I've always been secretly in love with Pikachu so I decided to give it a shot. And now I'm obsessed. I even bought myself a plush Pikachu online. Literally obsessed.

I'm going to try to take more pictures, I don't know why I haven't been, Texas is gorgeous, so hopefully you'll be seeing more pictures of our new home up on the blog soon.

Alright, was there anything else? Not that I can think of. Well, this review is short and sweet, but so was the month of May for me. Thank you for reading and have a fabulous day!!

On Being a Supportive Wife

When I graduated high school I had my heart set on Utah State University, actually I knew I wanted to go there for years before that. And I held my head high and proudly said I was going to major in print journalism and write for a magazine like in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days .

During my first year of college my father, bless his heart, would email me news articles about how news is dying out (that sounds totally ironic). He would remind me that journalists don't get paid anything and my chances of actually writing what I want are incredibly slim.

Now, to say that it was my dad that led me to change my major is false. It's not his fault I have such a fickle mind and can't make and stick to decisions (or maybe it is, I do have his genes...). However I'd be lying if I said the emails he sent didn't have an influence on my decision. While I know both my parents would never discourage me from living my dreams, this was one instance that I didn't feel entirely supported. (But I still love my dad, and seriously he supports me in everything so I'm in no way trying to criticize or say he's a bad dad, because he's the greatest.)

As fate would have it, I would end up marrying a print journalism major and the emails that my father sent still sometimes pop into my head as Chris is talking about his dreams of being a journalist. But I never say a thing.

As Chris's wife it isn't my job to tell Chris that his dreams can't be achieved. It's my job to support him no matter what he does and help him to achieve all his goals. 

We are currently going through big changes in our marriage. Our one year anniversary is this Sunday, we both have full-time jobs (his being more than full-time, basically an all-the-time-except-sleep kind of job), we're figuring out our futures in college, we've moved to Texas and away from our families, and we're continually growing and maturing together. Things are crazy and I will support Chris through all of it!

Lately Chris has been discouraged with this new job. He's in sales and he doesn't get paid unless he sells, which after three days he hasn't yet. He's feeling upset and downhearted.

So every night I make him a nice meal to come home to (something I pretty much haven't done in our entire year of marriage (yep, I'm the worst)), I focus on him and his need before my own, and I tell him positive thoughts and let him know I'm rooting for him and I'll always support him.

It's not my job to tell him to do better. It's not my job to ask him what he's doing wrong. It's not my job to leave him feeling discouraged. No! That's all wrong! It's my job to make him feel good about himself and to think positively. It's my job to encourage him. It's my job to continually support him throughout all of our marriage.

I'm not saying we have a perfect marriage, I mean it's only been one year! What do we know about marriage? But if I've learned one thing in the last year, it's that if you support your spouse 100% in all their dreams, they will always support you back, even if your new goal is kind of crazy and risky. Love is about putting their needs before your own, that's what support means, giving all you have to help your spouses dreams come true.

I will always support Chris in his future endeavors and I know he will always support me. That's love. And I love Chris with all my heart. 

Amy Bennion Photography

Now Coming to You From Texas

Hello blogging world! I am now coming to you from the hot land of Texas. And honestly going from cold Logan straight to Texas heat is a big change for me. It's hot! But last night when we got here and the sun was setting, the weather felt so good! I love warm nights. :)

This post is me just rambling about what's been going on recently with our move. It may not be the most exciting post, but it's informative. Ha ha.

I wasn't able to get into the apartment until today at about noon, but our apartment is really nice and most our stuff is already put away because we only brought what fit in our car, so we don't have much. Because of this, though, it still hasn't really sunk in that I'm living in Texas now. I mean, the majority of my stuff is still in Logan and our families are in Utah. When it finally sinks in that I live here now, I'll let you know.

Chris has been working his new job all day. He's so great! For anyone new or unaware, we moved here because Chris got a summer sales job selling pest control. And as of this morning, I now work as a receptionist for the same company! Yay! That's the easiest I've ever gotten a job before and I'm so happy about it! I loved my last receptionist job and it's something I've been wanting to do again.

We don't have internet in our apartment yet so I'm in the apartment's office area, which is super nice. Here is my current view:

(Except now there's a girl in that chair, and yes, my husband has a Liverpool screen saver on his laptop, what did you expect?? And if you're wondering why I'm not using my laptop, here's why.) 

We came in this morning and they were so kind and immediately offered us coffee, which we don't drink but we appreciated the kind gesture. The staff here has been incredibly kind through the abnormally long process of getting our apartment, and since Chris left for work it was all me.

Here's a few more pictures of our apartment:

Funny story, our GPS app had the slight wrong address so we were passing by these buildings and Chris says, "Those are nice, I wish we were living there." And he mentioned that from a distance they looked like cow spots (which obviously made me love them). And when we figured out the correct address we were super happy to be living here! The above is the building we are in. We have a small apartment with a living room, bedroom, big bathroom with massive tub, big closet, and a lovely kitchen:

This apartment is so incredibly nice compared to our last one! I love it! I'm sure Chris loves in too but he hasn't actually been in our apartment yet so we can't be sure.

Since we arrived last night, we had to sleep on the floor of Chris's coworker's apartment, which is right next door to ours. We had couch cushions under us and I actually slept really well. We met many of Chris's coworkers last night and watched Frozen together (which I realized I really do like, I had only seen it once before so I was still on the fence about it). I got to meet two more wives that are along on the journey, they are super nice and today they helped me carry everything from the car to the apartment, since all the men were gone.

Since I've been feeling friend-less for a long time, last night was crazy when the two girls were asking me all these questions about what I like to do and getting my phone number and texting me today. I'm honestly not used to it. I haven't had anyone meet me and try to be my friend in a long time, it was slightly overwhelming because it all happened so fast but I'm so happy we're friends and they've already been so helpful and I know we'll have a great summer together.

One of them was supposed to do the receptionist job but decided she didn't really want to and she had other job opportunities, so she passed it on to me and I'm so so grateful because I really wanted to find a job here soon and I didn't have to do any work to get it and I already have one and start on Wednesday. I feel so incredibly blessed already!

The drive to Texas was a long one. We left on Friday and we got a much later start than we thought we would, so we didn't make it to our reserved hotel. Instead we drove until we were tired and found a different hotel, which happened to be cheaper. The next day we did the same, we just drove until we were tired and found a hotel.

That second night we were using one of my apps to find hotels and we came across a cheap one, but when were were searching for it, the address led us to one of the scariest most ghetto places I've ever seen and honestly, I was freaked out. So I was upset so Chris drove us to the nicer area of town and we paid a little extra for a nice, and safe hotel.

Then on Sunday we drove the rest of the way to San Antonio. Chris decided he wants to live in Texas; they play country music on all the radio stations, they put gravy on everything, the fishing is good and they sell fish at a lot of restaurants, and he absolutely loves big cities. I don't know if I'm completely sold on living in Texas forever, but for now it's been really great.

Oh! So on Saturday during the drive I begin to tell Chris that tornados are one of my new biggest fears. They freak me out. And that night I turn on the TV and it has a show on about tornados! So I leave it on because it has lots of information and tips on what to do in a tornado, thinking it will help me overcome my fear, but it doesn't really. And then we wake up the next day and as I'm driving I see in the distance a mini sand tornado! It was just sand and it wasn't that powerful, but neither of us had seen anything like it before in real life so it was kind of crazy! And it went over the road right in front of us. Chris tried to record it for me, but he apparently doesn't know how to use my phone.

During the trip I recorded some fun moments. I'm hoping to make a special video montage at some point but there is a great possibility that it'll never happen. So don't get your hopes up. Just know that we had a supremely long but fun drive and we enjoyed each other's company.

Speaking of us being together, this Sunday is our one year anniversary!! Can you believe I've been married a year? I sure can't! It's been a weird and crazy year and while people say your first year of marriage is the easiest, I believe that things are going to be changing for the better this next year, the best is yet to come! We've already been seeing changes for the better with this Texas move! And we are both so excited for what is to come.

This is an exciting new change in our lives and that's why this post is so long, because there is just so much changing and there is just so much to tell! But I do apologize if you found this post super boring... but no one was forcing you to read it.

Don't forget about my Book Club starting back up this month!!! There are two books this month and you don't have to read both but you're more than welcome to. Also don't forget to donate and help spread the word about this month's Charity of the Month, the Make a Wish Foundation. Thank you all so much for reading and I know I'll have a lot more stories about living in Texas soon!!

Oh! And one last picture, starting out our road trip to Texas:

Originally posted on my Instagram, feel free to follow me!! 

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!

__________________________________________________________

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!! 

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!!!! 

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.)

I'm Moving to Texas???

Alright people, let's get real here for a moment. Life is crazy and filled with many unexpected twists and turns. I had no idea that after getting married I wouldn't be able to find a job and we'd be super poor and have to move and do all these things because of our lack of money. I had no idea starting out in college that I would be here for eight years, changing my major three times. And I had no idea that an opportunity would come and we would move to Texas for the summer....

What??? 

Yeah, you heard me right. WE'RE MOVING TO TEXAS FOR THE SUMMER!!!

It's alright to be majorly surprised because I'm super surprised too. Here's the whole story. Chris got approached by some old mission friends about a job opportunity for the summer. He would be selling pest control in Texas for the summer. My husband thought about it but didn't really consider it as an option. We have a whole life here, it feels like we just moved and were finally getting settled in, and we both have jobs here.

Chris went down to Salt Lake and they took him out to dinner and explained the whole job to him. Chris became more interested but still didn't really want to uproot our little family despite the ridiculous amounts of money he could get.

Then, only a few days later, at his Papa Johns job, he delivered a large order of pizzas to a similar type of company. They paid the bill then handed him a $75 tip. Chris took the money happily, we've been struggling financially for months and $75 is a lot to us. But this tip got him to thinking...

This company handed him the $75 like it was worthless to them. They had tons of money and we easily able to spend $75 just for a tip. Chris realized that he's lucky to get a $1 tip here and he began thinking about the job offer more. If he were to take the job, he could potentially have $75 to spare as a tip.

We then went on our St. George trip where Chris talked with his brother who was offered a similar type job in California. They began comparing their offers, wanting to do something together, but Chris was still on the fence of whether or not we should really go.

After a lovely dinner at his grandma's house, Chris and I went walking hand in hand through the warm St. George neighborhood. We began discussing our options. Much to his surprise I immediately suggested we go to Texas. Because while we have a life here, we may never get an opportunity like this again. Chris is going to graduate soon and I want kids soon (but should wait till I graduate). This is one of the only times it's just us and we'd be able to do something like this.

We discussed it carefully and went over the plan and the different options till we made a decision. We needed to move to Texas.

While we both understand that it'll be a struggle and he will be working constantly, we both agree that a new experience and an adventure like this will be good for us. We are both sad we'll miss out on things at home and have to put everything on hold for a while, we believe that this is the right decision for us.

Obviously, if you live in Texas you have to tell me all about the wonderful things I have to do! I'm considering making something like The Cache Valley Checklist but for Texas and things that we can do in one summer. So if you think I should do that, let me know and if you have things for me to do in Texas please leave a comment or shoot me an email! And whether or not I make I checklist, you can bet I'll be blogging about the whole adventure!

This is a huge change for us and we're both incredibly nervous and excited. But mostly excited. It's an adventure and it'll be a big change, but we're both very happy about our decision.